


Sunlit Shimmers, Moonlit Eyes

by irinokat



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Depression, F/F, F/M, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:30:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 34,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9708152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irinokat/pseuds/irinokat
Summary: There is something strange going on with Team Skull, other than that they're, well, y'know, a gang of misfit teenagers. The admin and the boss have strange powers of attraction - as well as other odd activity happening around them. Whatever could it mean?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, I apologize for the title and the summary, I am horrible at titles and summaries.
> 
> Second of all, give me a tiny chance to run with a vampire AU and I will take it SO FAR. (See This Sun Can't Set Just Yet if you don't believe me.)
> 
> Third of all, why the hell do I seem to be the first person on here to write Guzma/Plumeria/Reader?!
> 
> Fourth of all, this makes a lot of the same assumptions/has many similar headcanons to the reader character in Healing - cis female, early twenties, moved from Johto to Unova to Alola, etc. etc.
> 
> Fifth and finally, if you've read Healing, you know that when I say slow burn, I mean slow burn. This one may move a bit faster than Healing, we'll have to see, but don't expect anything too exciting on the sexual front for a couple chapters, at least.

You look over your map of Akala Island again on your Pokédex. Heahea City is fairly small (especially compared to the cities in Johto and Unova), but you still want to make sure you know where you’re going. Professor Kukui told you to meet him at the Dimensional Research Lab… It should only be a few blocks from the Pokemon Center, as far as you can tell.

As you make your way towards the lab, Hau pops out of an alley, humming an upbeat tune. “Alola!” You make the hand sign along with him, trying not to feel silly – it’s a common greeting around here, it’s not like people will look at you weirdly for doing it. “You see Professor Kukui?”

“Yeah. I guess he told you to meet him at the Dimensional Research Lab too?” Hau nods.  “I think it’s just up here.”

“That big white building,” Hau says, pointing. You squint and think you see the familiar white lab coat and hat.

Kukui greets you in front of the door. “How’s your trip around the island been?” he asks.

“Awesome!” Hau shouts. It’s fun to see his enthusiasm for his trials.

“Little tougher than I thought it would be,” you admit.

“How so?” Kukui asks.

“That Totem Salazzle was vicious. I wasn’t expecting Fire _and_ Poison moves.” You pat your Pokéballs. “Dartrix nearly got taken out in one hit when I had to pull him out.”

Kukui smiles. “Yeah, you’ve got to remember that your starter is a great, tough Pokémon, but they can’t take care of everything for you.”

“I know!” You pull out your EXP Share. “I’ve been training all my little buddies! This thing’s been really helpful.” You make sure it’s still switched on as you put it back.

“Glad you’re making use of it! Now let’s go.” You follow him into the building and up the elevator to the third floor. Kukui flings his arms wide as you exit and look around, trying to take in the new space. “Welcome to the Dimensional Research Lab!”

“Hey, honey!” a white-haired woman says, jogging up and throwing her arms around Kukui. You look at her – she seems about Kukui’s age; there’s no way that hair is natural, right? But it looks so good against her tanned skin. She has a strange green headband wrapping under her head, and instead of the stuffy scientist look you were expecting, she’s in a gray tanktop, an aqua green skirt, and black leggings. You wonder if you should ask her for style tips as she and Kukui finally let go of each other.

Kukui keeps an arm slung around her shoulder. “This is Professor Burnet, my wife and researcher extraordinaire!”

Burnet smiles at you. “So you two must be Lillie’s new friends, huh?”

You nod as Hau says, “Yep!”

“She’s told me a little about you two. Any friends of Kukui’s and Lillie’s is certainly welcome here.” She waves her hand toward the far side of the room and calls, “Lillie! Your friends are here!”

Soon you see Lillie’s hat poking out over the desks as she comes toward you. “Hello!”

“I found Lillie washed up on the beach a few months ago,” Burnet says. “Kukui took her as an assistant, so she’s been staying with us and we’ve been studying Nebby.”

At the mention of its name, Nebby pokes his head out of Lillie’s bag, cooing at Burnet. Lillie sighs and lets it out. “It’s safe in here, I suppose.”

“Don’t worry, you can trust my scientists,” Burnet says. You look around; there only seem to be a few other people here, and none of them are looking your way, wrapped up in what they’re working on.

“So what are you working on here?” you ask. “I mean, I get the ‘research’ on ‘dimensions’ part, but what dimensions?”

Burnet lights up at that, eager to talk about her work. “Ah, yes! You wouldn’t be familiar, since you’re new to Alola. We have many legends about holes opening in the sky, and strange creatures appearing from them.” She walks to a computer and pulls up two photographs. They're old, black and white tinged yellow with age, focused on the sky, with strange blurs around the stars. You can see clouds to either side of the blurs, so they can't be clouds… “These are over a century old, believed to capture the rifts,” Burnet says, pointing to them. “Due to requiring longer exposure time to develop a photo, they couldn't perfectly capture the short opening of a rift – an Ultra Wormhole, we call it.”

She pulls up three new photos, from a range of decades, it seems, considering the differences in color and photo quality. The oldest has similar blurs to the black and white photos. The second seems to be from thirty years ago, with its faded colors. The newest looks like it came from a digital camera, with blight colors and clear crisp lines. “This was taken just a few years ago, from the Mount Hokulani observatory.” There's strange rift torn in the sky, surrounded by blue and purple lights. “In recent memory, at least, none of these wormholes have released any living beings – at least, none we've found yet.”

Lillie shifts nervously. You start to ask her a question before Hau blurts out, “None? But creatures from another world would be so cool!” He takes his chin in his hand, unconsciously imitating Hala as he thinks. “What would their Pokémon look like?”

Burnet grins. “Most of the creatures recorded are more like Pokémon themselves, though the legends and myths say they’re much more powerful. Ultra Beasts.” She pulls up photos of carvings from ancient monuments, sketches of legends. “There’ve rarely been reports of beings we’d find similar to us. Then again, all we really have to go on is old stories, the photos, and our current knowledge of Pokémon that can work with other dimensions.” She turns away from the computer and looks up at you. “But I know we’ll learn more studying these dimensional disturbances and the other phenomena they’ve caused!”

 

She gets up and shows you around the lab, giving you what must be incredibly simple explanations of various machines they use to record dimensional “ripples” and other machines they’ve used to study Nebby. When she’s finished, she asks, “So what are you all up to next? Have you finished your trials?”

You nod while Hau says, “Yeah! We’ve just gotta do our Grand Trial and we’re done here!”

“How exciting!” Burnet turns to Lillie. “What are going to do now, sweetie?”

“Well, I was thinking about heading to the Ruins of Life,” she says. “Nebby seemed interested in the ruins on Melemele, so maybe I should try going there and seeing how he reacts.”

“You sure you know the way?” Burnet asks.

Lillie nods. “I believe so. I’ll be fine, I promise!”

Professor Kukui comes over and pats her shoulder. “Just let us know if you need help, okay?” He looks up at you and Hau. “So, think you’re ready to face Olivia?”

“Yep!” you and Hau say at the same time.

“You better get going, then, if you want to catch her today!” He motions you toward the elevator, turning back himself to give Burnet another hug. “See you, sweetie.”

Hau gags a little as they say lingering goodbyes while you get on the elevator. “Aw, they’re cute,” you tell him.

“Can't they just, like, kiss and be done?” he asks.

You roll your eyes. “You'll get it later.”

“That's what everyone says.” He grins. “Guess I just need to get older!”

You smile back. “Have fun being a kid before you worry about all that. You've got plenty of time to grow up.”

When you come out of the building, you get a strange feeling in the back of your head, a weird sort of scratchy buzzing. You look around as Hau runs on, wondering what's causing it. You look directly up at the sky over the lab – and see the purple and blue crackling lights in the sky, the hole in the air that Professor Burnet just showed you. It's small, and closing, but it's there. You swallow hard. Did something come out of it?

“Hey, come on!” Hau shots from up ahead.

You slowly walk up to him. The rift sealed while Hau was talking, and the odd crackly buzz in your head is gone. “Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“The…” You turn around and look up again. There's no evidence the rift was ever there. Now you're questioning yourself. Were you just seeing things? Burnet said the wormholes were incredibly rare. You can't have actually seen one, can you have?

You shake your head. “Nothing. Let's go.”

Olivia lives and owns a shop in Konikoni City. You both agree that's probably the best place to start looking for her. To get there, you have to go through Diglett’s Tunnel.

To your surprise, she's there when you enter – at least, she looks like the picture Professor Kukui showed you back when you arrived at Akala Island, tanned skin and dark hair, minimal eyeliner around dark eyes, wearing a light pink halter top, dark pink shorts, and tons and tons of colorful gems on necklaces and bracelets. “Hi! You came just in time for the tunnel to open back up.”

“It was closed?” you ask.

“Just since this morning. The Digletts and Dugtrios were getting a bit restless. It was too much for most people to handle.”

“We coulda taken 'em on!” Hau says, fists out in a fighting pose.

Olivia smiles at him. “I like your attitude. But when the Digletts get riled up, it causes more problems than just wild Pokémon running around.” She points to some workers with Pokémon and machines moving a pile of shattered rocks that mostly covers the path to the left of the entrance. “Like that, for instance. That's why we have emergency crews to maintain the tunnel.” She turns back to the two of you. “You I recognize,” she says, mussing Hau's hair. “Hala's grandkid, right?”

“Hau!” he says, laughing.

She looks up at you. “I don't think I've seen you before.”

You give her your name. “I just moved here.”

Looking at the charm on your bag, Olivia says, “Are you doing the island trials too?”

“Professor Kukui said it was a good way to get to know Alola better.”

“So are you two ready for your grand trial?” She studies your Z-Rings. “Looks like it! Great!” She starts to walk away.

“Hey, wait!” Hau says.

She glances back over her shoulder. “Meet me at my shop in Konikoni! You still have a few challenges left before you can face my trial.” You watch as she walks off to the right.

Hau starts heading off to the left. “Where are you going?” you ask.

“I wanna explore the whole place!”

“Can’t hurt, I guess,” you say, following him.

The Digletts themselves, and the Zubats, aren’t much of a problem. The trainers are. Plenty of the workers in the tunnel are happy to take a break for a Pokémon battle. And when you get to the end of the tunnel, two Team Skull grunts are waiting for you. “Hey, it’s that girl who beat us on Melemele!” the boy says.

The girl tosses a Pokéball up and down as she glares at you. “Feelin’ so cocky without a trial captain around to help you?” She looks at Hau. “You don’t look like much either, kid. Hand over your Pokémon and we’ll letcha off easy!”

“No way!” Hau shouts.

“Then we’ll do this the hard way!” the boy grunt says as he and the girl throw their Pokéballs. You and Hau look at each other and grin before letting your own Pokémon out.

The battle’s a breeze – the kids only have two Pokémon between them. You honestly feel kind of bad for them – shouldn’t they have gotten more Pokémon by now? Once they’re beaten, the girl growls, “We’ll get you for this, I swear!” before they run off. By the time you reach the end of the cave, they’re out of sight.

It’s the afternoon now as you emerge onto Route 9. There are more trainers on the way to Konikoni City – this is what Olivia must have meant by more challenges. Your Pokémon are worn out by the time you get into town.

You and Hau split up to look around. There are tons of shops to look at as you wander through the city – some selling normal Pokémon goods, some with exotic items on display. Maybe you’ll look around more later, but right now you just want to face Olivia, trying to figure out which shop is hers.

Thankfully, it’s not too hard to find – it’s across the street from the Pokémon Center. You head in after getting your Pokémon healed and glance around at the wares. The place sells gems and jewelry, but the real treasure lies behind the counter, in a carefully sealed display case – evolution stones. You stare at them, trying to decide whether you want to evolve your Growlithe or your Pikachu and what you want to evolve your Eevee into. After today, you have the money for some stones, but not many – you have to be choosy.

After you buy a Fire Stone and a Thunder Stone, you ask the cashier, “Is Olivia here?”

“She was a little while ago. Are you one of the trainers who wanted to challenge her?” You nod. “Here, she left a note, let me –” She steps out from behind the counter and heads toward the stairs leading up into the apartment above the store. She stops at the bottom of them, shouting, “Whoa, whoa, big guy!” as you hear stomping.

Down the stairs and into the shop hops a Probopass, a piece of paper stabbed onto its arm. The cashier takes it and says, “Uh, Olivia says she’ll meet you at the Ruins of Life.”

“Thanks!” You leave and take a glance at your map. You have to cross Route 9 again and go through Memorial Hill, a cemetery, to the outskirts of Akala, with the Ruins of Life at the end. You sigh and head back to the Pokémon Center, stocking up on potions before you go. Olivia really meant it when she said there’d be challenges, didn’t she? You’re not even sure if you’ll be able to fight her before nightfall.

You make your way over Route 9 and Memorial Hill without too much trouble, even with all the trainers about. There’s even another Team Skull grunt in the cemetery – at least this one doesn’t recognize you and hold a grudge. Evening starts to fall as you approach the outskirts of the island. You grimace as you feel the air start to cool – will you even be able to fight Olivia today?

After another several minutes of walking and fighting trainers, you see some large carved stones ahead indicating the ruins are ahead. You give a sigh of relief – then notice rustling in the grass behind you. You turn and see a thin young woman walk toward you, maybe 19 or 20. She’s wearing black sweatpants with white zigzag stripes up the sides and a strange black tank-top – it’s got cut-outs that create an X over her ribs, showing off her stomach, which has a pink tattoo on it – it looks like a bit like the Team Skull symbol. Even stranger are her face and hair – she’s got thick winged black eyeliner surrounded by white eye-shadow, and her hair is pulled into four long pigtails held together with skull-shaped ornaments. That’s not the most bizarre thing about her hair, either; the back two pigtails are yellow – not blonde, bright yellow – while the rest of her hair is pink. Just to make absolutely sure you know she’s from Team Skull, she has a necklace with a small silver pendant of the S-skull logo. Her gold eyes flash as she stares at you.

It’s an odd style, but you can’t help thinking she pulls it off – she’s actually kinda cute. Really cute. Extremely attractive. You would not mind kissing her, you don't think - 

Before your mind can wander too far down weird paths, she says, “So you’re the one Gladion told me about? You don’t look that special.”

You shrug. “Special? I mean, I beat him, but that doesn’t really seem special.”

The girl glares. “And I hear you’ve been beating up my grunts, too.” So she’s the leader? “You know they’re all idiots, right?”

You blink and take another look at her. “Are you their boss? That sounds kinda mean coming from their boss.”

Now she laughs derisively. “Nah, I’m not the boss. I’m Plumeria – I help keep all these numbskulls together.” She sighs. “They’re dumb, but it’s kind of adorable, y’know? They’re like my little brothers and sisters.” Her look turns mean again. “And you’ve been beatin’ up on my siblings. It’s really annoying me!” She tosses a Pokéball at you.

For being a higher-up in Team Skull, she’s not too tough, but your Pokémon are tired again. You win, but now you’re really wondering if your team’s going to be in good enough shape to face Olivia.

While you heal and pat down your Pokémon, Plumeria’s annoyance ratches up another level. “Well, I guess you’re pretty strong, I’ll give you that. You win this time. But keep getting in Team Skull’s way, and I’ll show you how serious I can get.” You watch her as she walks back toward Memorial Hill for a minute, wondering what the hell that was all about – did she really think you’d stop putting kids stealing Pokémon in their place if she beat you?

You turn and start toward the ruins again when all of a sudden the rustling Plumeria’s making stops. You turn around and look back – there’s no trace of her whatsoever. Speaking of which, how’d she manage to sneak up on you like that? You only heard her at the last moment.

The more you go around these islands, the weirder things get.

When you get to the entrance to the ruins, you see Olivia standing and talking with Lillie and – Professor Burnet? The professor sees you, smiles, and waves you over. “Hey! Lillie got a little lost on the way over so I helped her out.”

Lillie shivers. “There were a lot of Team Skull members around today. I was trying to avoid them, and, well, I couldn’t find my way.”

You nod. “I just ran into one of their higher ups. Plumeria, I think she said her name was?”

Olivia gives you a curious look. “How’d that go?”

“I beat her and I think she hates my guts.”

“Oh, I doubt it’s that bad,” Professor Burnet says. “If you can stand up to her, you’re ready for a lot to come your way. Now their leader, on the other hand…”

Olivia crosses her arms over her chest. “He doesn’t come out here much, thankfully. Mostly sticks to Ula’Ula, from what I hear, lets his grunts do the work out on the other islands.”

Wanting to get to the trial before it gets any darker, you try to change the subject. “So why are you all the way out here?”

“Tapu Lele called me to the ruins, had some things to look at and clean up here.” Olivia gives you a sympathetic smile. “Sorry the way was a bit more of a challenge than usual – but I didn’t put you through anything I thought you couldn’t take.”

You shrug. “I managed.”

“And hey, if you can handle Plumeria, you must be quite a trainer.” She gives you a more serious look. “But I’m not gonna go easy on you – this should be your toughest battle yet. Ready to start your grand trial?”

Finally! You shout, “Yeah!”

“Then let’s do this!” She steps back and unleashes a Nosepass.

Her specialty is Rock-types – her Pokémon are strong, but you have an advantage with your Dartrix and the Poliwag you caught last week at Brooklet Hill. She only has three Pokémon, so before long you manage to bring her down.

Once you’ve put your Pokémon back up, she comes up and claps you on the shoulder. “Great job!” She fingers one of the gems on her necklace. “Diamonds only sparkle after coal’s pushed to its absolute limit. Your Pokémon shine bright.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a brown Z-Crystal, showing you the Z-move to activate it once she hands it off to you. “The hip movement is crucial,” she says, performing the last bit again. “Remember carefully.”

“You know, I wouldn’t really have expected you to be into Rock Pokémon,” you note.

She grins. “They’re tough, rugged and sturdy – nothing like me at all! I guess opposites attract.” She tugs at her necklace. “And some rocks are nice and shiny – just up my alley.”

Professor Burnet glances around. “That was a great battle, but it’s getting late. We should probably head back for the day.”

“What are you going to do for the night?” Olivia asks.

You’re not exhausted, so you don’t think you’ll camp out here if you don’t have to. “Think I’ll stay at the Pokémon Center in Konikoni, check the place out more tomorrow. I didn’t get to do much there today.”

“Great! I’ll walk you back.”

Professor Burnet and Lillie walk with you for a while. You remember the incident earlier and fall back with Professor Burnet. “Hey, um, I saw something weird earlier, I think.” You tell her about the rift in the sky.

She immediately gets excited, asking you all about it. “We picked it up on the scanners, but I didn’t know there were any witnesses!”

“I mean, I can’t be the only one who saw it, can I?”

“I’ll just have to see if anyone else saw it tomorrow!” She takes out her Pokedex and starts typing out a few notes. “Thanks for letting me know!”

Burnet and Lillie stay with you until the Route 9 split – they head back to Heahea while you and Olivia go on to Konikoni City. Olivia stays with you up until the Pokémon Center. You start to say a goodbye, but she interrupts, saying, “Come into my shop for a moment. I have something else for you.”

You follow as she unlocks the door and steps in – the shop itself’s been closed for a bit. Olivia says, “Wait right here,” darting up the stairs – you wonder how she can move that fast in heels. It’s not long before she comes back down, holding a small jewelry box. “Most things in here are my personal designs, but I keep my special pieces in my workshop until I’m ready to sell them.” She opens the box. Inside is a simple necklace – a thin metal cord with a circle of the same metal holding a round of grey-black stone streaked with blue. “This is for you.”

You run your finger over the stone – it’s got a strange, chalky texture to it. “What is this?”

“It’s a piece of moonstone – a piece that chipped off a larger stone - set in silver.”

You stare at her. “Is the whole necklace silver?” She nods. “You – you can’t give this to me!”

“Of course I can.” She shuts the box and holds it out to you.

“But – but why?” Plumeria’s words from earlier echo through your mind – _you don’t look that special._ You aren’t special – what is this all about?

“It’s a gift, from one girl to another.” She presses the box into your hands. “I think it’d look beautiful on you.”

“I – I mean, thanks, but – I can’t –”

She smiles. “Don’t worry about it. I promise it’s not very expensive. I just thought you’d like it.”

“I do, it’s beautiful.”

“Then take it.”

She won’t accept a no – finally you tuck it away in your bag and head back to the Pokémon Center. You blink as you see a Zubat fly overhead – what’s a Zubat doing out here, so far from the tunnel? It hovers for a moment, then flaps away.

Today has just been utterly bizarre. You’re happy to lay down for the night when you’re shown to your room.

In the morning, after getting dressed, you pull out the jewelry box and open it, looking the necklace. You still can’t believe Olivia gave it to you – should you wear it? Would she be offended if she saw you without it?

You trace the stone again. It’s so pretty… You take it out and put it on. It’s simple enough – it could go with just about anything you have to wear. You take a look in the mirror. It’s not showy at all.

You end up wearing it every day after that, thankful for the strange gift.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait on this chapter! Haven't had as much time to write lately, and I'm trying to alternate between fics so everything gets updated on a semi-decent schedule. Hope this one's alright.

It’s late afternoon, heading into evening, when you mount a Charizard and ride down from Mount Hokulani to Malie City. The trial took a while with the black-out – stumbling around and running into Pokémon in the dark wasn’t exactly the most fun experience, but you made it through in the end. You wonder how Hau’s trial is going – had Sophocles really caused the electricity to short-circuit, or was that part of the trial? Either way, he’d made Hau wait a while he looked over his machines.

The sun’s starting to set by the time you get to the city. Once the Charizard touches down, you hop off and thank it with a Pokébean before you head toward Malie Garden, readjusting your skirt as you walk. Hopefully Professor Kukui hasn’t been waiting too long – he did leave when Hau came up for his trial, so he’s been in the city a while…

You see Kukui immediately when you walk through the gate – and you also see Team Skull grunts surrounding him, tourists watching from a bit farther back. Why did they have to pick now to attack the garden? They always somehow manage to get in your way no matter where you go. At least there was a Pokémon Center to heal up at on Mount Hokulani so you’re not caught unprepared. You pull a Pokéball from your pocket as you run up to the professor. He turns and grins at you. “Hey, glad you could make it!”

“What’s up?” you ask, looking at the Team Skull teenagers.

“Just about to take these guys on in a Battle Royal.” He holds up two Pokéballs of his own. “How about it, boys? I’ll only need four turns for all of you. A good Swift and an Incinerate or two should take care of this!”

A couple of the grunts look confident, but most of them look a little nervous, even though they easily outnumber you. They look around – then see something behind them and start cheering and yelling. A tall white-haired man in a black short-sleeved hoodie and sweatpants is walking over the bridge towards you, staring at Kukui with bright grey eyes. There’s a giant gold pendant of the Team Skull logo hanging from his neck on a gold chain. He’s also got on a gold watch – from what you’ve seen of Team Skull so far, you wonder how he can afford such things. He’s got a slouch to his posture but he still seems way taller than you.

You almost can’t help staring at his odd appearance. To be honest, you think you find him attractive – which is not a good feeling to be having toward someone the Team Skull kids are calling “boss.” They step aside to let him through; he stops in front of Kukui and glares at him, smirking, folding his arms over his chest. “Battle Royal, huh?” he asks. “Nice idea, Kukui. Think you can beat down all these Pokémon at once?” He glances around and sees everyone staring at him, his smirk growing wider. His next words are loud enough for everyone to clearly hear. “Think you can beat down the boss of Team Skull?”

“I don’t need to.” Kukui smiles. “I already know how tough you think you are. Have since we were kids.”

“Then you know it’s not just thinkin’,” Guzma says.

“You guys know each other?” you ask.

Before he can answer, Guzma looks over at you, catching your gaze and holding it before looking you up and down. He spots the Z-Ring on your wrist and laughs. “You? Taking the island trials? At your age?”

“She is. And she’s doing wonderful,” Kukui says, hand patting your shoulder.

Guzma snorts. “What is she, your pet project?”

“She just moved to Alola. We figured it was a good way for her to get to know the islands, and see what she’s made of.” Kukui smiles. “She might even just be Champion when we start up the Pokémon League.” You turn to stare at him. What?

You snap back to Guzma as he says, “Ha! Like we need a Pokémon League to prove who’s the strongest. We all know I’m the best trainer on the islands.”

“Really? Then why don’t you take her on?” You glance back at him, eyes wide. What is he getting you into? “Prove it.”

“I’d be happy to destroy your little pet.” Guzma backs away, pulling a Pokeball out of his hoodie’s pocket and enlarging it. “You ready for a serious beat down? ‘Cause it’s comin’ atcha!”

You sigh as Kukui backs away, leaving enough room for a battle. “You serious with that attitude?”

 Guzma glares at you, still with that stupid smirk on – it’s curling your insides into a ball surrounding the butterflies in your stomach. Why do you have to think he’s good-looking?!  “Dead serious.” A couple of the grunts laugh at this. You can’t figure out why. Guzma turns his gaze on them until they stop, then looks back to you and sends out his first Pokémon – one you haven’t seen before, a massive hulking bug that’s taller than Guzma covered in white armor plating. Its claws look vicious. “Golisopod, crush her!”

Well, at least you know bugs are weak to fire. You send out your Growlithe and shout, “Flame Wheel!” The attack doesn’t do much, to your surprise.

Guzma grins as he squats down and commands, “Razor Shell!”

Shit.

And just like that, your first Pokémon’s down. You grit your teeth and throw out Decidueye. He should be fast enough to get out a move – maybe since it’s a water type, this one’ll be weak to grass-type moves? No, it being a bug would cancel that out. Decidueye has a flying move… “Decidueye, Pluck!”

It’s not super strong, but it’s enough to knock Golisopod past half-health – and immediately, it retreats back into its Pokeball. You watch, confused, as Guzma glares at you again and tosses out an Ariados. “Sucker Punch!”

That hit’s nearly enough to take out Decidueye. You have him use Pluck again, which is thankfully effective, if not killer. The Ariados finishes off Decidueye with another Sucker Punch. You wince as you return him to his ball, trying to think. Which of your other Pokémon would work? No one else has fire or flying moves, or rock-type… You didn’t realize you were this unprepared for bugs.

You toss out your Kadabra, just trying to calculate what would do normal damage against a bug-type. “Psycho Cut!” The move’s enough to knock Ariados out – it looks so roughed up you wonder if that was super-effective or just a lucky critical hit. You breathe a sigh of relief as Guzma, pissed now, tosses out his Golisopod again.

This time Psycho Cut isn’t as effective. “Golisopod, Slash!” At least that doesn’t do too much damage, though his Golisopod is powerful. Another Psycho Cut and he’s out.

You hug your Kadabra and feed him a couple Pokébeans while Guzma fumes. You watch him stick his fingers in his hair, muttering, “What is wrong with you?!” For a minute you’re offended until you realize he’s yanking hanks of hair and screwing his eyes shut – he’s talking to himself. It’s almost sad.

He seems done with the fit once you put Kadabra away. He straightens up – well, somewhat, his back’s still hunched – and stalks over to you. He bends down just enough to see eye-to-eye with you, close enough that it’s uncomfortable – you could probably smell his breath if you dared to breathe. “I’ll remember you.”

“Guzma,” Kukui says in a warning tone, “let it go.”

He gives you one last piercing look before he shoves past you, bumping your shoulder hard with his and knocking you to the side. “Clear out,” he says to the grunts, all staring at the three of you with the rest of the crowd. “I said move it!” They hurriedly scramble after him out the gates and into the city at large.

“Good job!” Kukui lays a hand on your shoulder again. “That was a great battle.”

“What the hell was that?!” You can’t help being a little mad for him forcing you into a fight. “How do you two know each other?”

He sighs. “We grew up together on Melemele. I was friends with him for a long time. Then I went on to study and become a professor. As far as I know, he just plain disappeared for a few years around then, only to start up Team Skull and try to break up the peace on the islands when he showed up again.” He folds his arms over his chest. “Something’s… different. He’s always put on the tough guy act but he’s…” He can’t put his finger on what he means. “There’s something off about him now.”

“Sorry.” You didn’t realize they had such a personal history together.

He shrugs. “People change. Not always for the better. I hope someday he understands the trouble he’s causing, but…” He frowns. It’s so rare to see him in a low mood.

You don’t quite know how to get him out of it. Feeling awkward, you change the subject. “So what did you want to meet me here for, anyways?”

Immediately he brightens up. “I wanted you to have this. Thought it was about time you’d really be able to start using it.” He hands you a green Z-crystal. “This is for Decidueye. Use it well.”

You pop it onto your Z-Ring. “Thanks.” Then you reach in your bag. “Oh yeah, Molayne said he found this!” You pull out the wrestling mask and give him a knowing look.

He laughs and takes it. “I’ll make sure this gets back to the Masked Royal.” You roll your eyes. He just loves pretending no one knows he’s the Royal, doesn’t he?

Looking up at the sky, you realize it’s starting to really get dark now. “Um, you wanna grab dinner?”

He shakes his head. “Thanks, but I’ve gotta head up to Mount Lanakila right now, take care of some business with the League. Just wanted to make sure I saw you first since I’ll be up there a while.” He grabs your hand and shakes it. “Good luck to you, cuz. Though I don’t think you’re gonna need it.”

You feel your face heat up. “Th-thanks.” You walk to the gate with him and watch as he flies off on a Charizard toward the center of the island. Then your stomach growls. You haven’t eaten since you first got to Mount Hokulani late this morning. Time to find a good restaurant here after you stop and reserve a room again at the Pokémon Center.

After downing some delicious sushi, you slowly make your way back through town to the Pokémon Center, enjoying the sight of the city by night. Things are calming down; the stores have shut and most people are heading back home or to the restaurants and bars for a drink. You see the Pokémon Center’s red roof through an alleyway; this appears to be a shortcut over to it. You start walking down it before you notice there’s someone in the shadows, leaning against the wall of one of the buildings creating the alley.

Even leaning, he’s tall enough to stand out, and the little bit of light making it into the alley reflects off his white hair. Guzma. You take a step back, but then steel yourself and make yourself go forward. You’ve already beaten him. There’s no way he’d try anything this close to a Pokémon Center. Right?

Once you’re in the middle of the alley, he kicks off the wall behind him and swings himself around so he’s more in the light - and blocking your way. “Wasn’t expecting to see you again tonight,” he says with a smirk.

“Just let me through,” you tell him, trying not to be intimidated. Or attracted. Why do all these stupid inconvenient feelings come up at the worst times?

“I gotta admit, it’s kinda hot having a woman beat my ass like that,” he says, shifting closer to you.

You take a step back, suddenly terrified, the way you should have been this whole time if your damn pride hadn’t gotten away from you. You reach in your pocket for a Pokeball, hoping you have time to release it before he can make a move. There’s no way you could stop him physically.

He frowns and steps to the side, leaning against the wall again. “Look, I just wanted to talk. If you want to go, just go.”

Disbelieving, you take another step away. He doesn’t follow. You gulp and walk past him; it’s narrow enough that you brush up against him, but he doesn’t move. When you’re at the end of the alley, you turn and stare at him; he’s turned to watch you. “That’s all you want?”

“I promise.” He comes up to you again, standing just outside of your comfort zone. “Though if you want to do other things, I’m up for it.”

“What?”

He bends down to look you eye-to-eye again. You feel captured by his gaze; your heart starts beating faster, and not entirely from fear. “You think I don’t know you’re hot for me?” he asks with a grin. “’Cause trust me, I know.”

“Is this what you wanted to talk about?” you ask.

“Not denyin’ it?”

“Just because I think you’re hot doesn’t mean I’m gonna fuck you in some shitty back alley,” you tell him. “I haven’t been beating your kids in battles just for fun. What you’re doing is wrong.”

“You don’t know why we’re doin’ it.” The intensity in his eyes is mesmerizing. He takes a step forward; you take one back.

“What, you’re gonna tell me you’re stealing Pokémon for a good reason?”

“No.” He steps closer. “But you don’t have all the facts.”

“And you’re gonna give me them?”

“Can’t.”

“So what are you expecting?”

“That maybe we can have some fun in spite of all that.”

You swallow. Having him this close is distracting; you can’t stop thinking about how delicious his lips look, how his eyes shine silver in the streetlights. You’re startled out of your thoughts when your back hits the cool wall behind you – he’s been steering you the entire time. “You think I’m just gonna forget everything and just pick up in the morning like nothing happened?”

“Kinda, yeah.” He leans in closer, setting one hand on the wall beside your head. His mouth is parted slightly – you look at his teeth and notice something odd – his canines are longer than most peoples’. His other hand comes up to press against your chest –

And then he gives an agonized shout, eyes going wide. It’s like something in the air breaks; he’s not irresistible anymore – still attractive but freaking out enough to make you panic a little. There’s a burning smell reaching your nose. He’s trying to move his hand away from your chest but it’s like something’s got him stuck there. Finally he gives a hard yank and pulls away, shaking his hand hard. When he stops moving, you can see fine black lines on his injured – injured? – hand, and an imprint of a circle…

You reach up and touch the necklace Olivia gave you. Something flakes off the cord holding the pendant around your neck. You look up at him, frightened – what the hell did it do to him? He stares back in shock and pain.

Then he runs. Sprints down the alley and away before you can even blink. You follow to the end and look out onto the street – he’s nowhere in sight. There are people looking back like they just saw something strange, you could possibly follow – but do you want to?

You can’t get to sleep that night. You thought everything on Akala was bizarre, but it barely even compares to this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the long wait for this chapter, and for updates becoming less frequent in the future. Life happens, unfortunately. Hoping this chapter's long enough to kind of make up for it.

You wake up late the next morning after finally managing to fall into fitful slumber sometime after 1AM. When you check out of the Pokemon Center, you call a Charizard and head back to Akala Island. The trials can wait while you try to figure out what the hell’s going on.

When you get to Heahea City, you realize you should probably ask Professor Burnet if she’s available before you just barge into her lab. You look up the number for the lab on your Pokedex and call; a receptionist puts you on hold, then says you should come up to the second floor. You enter the lab, use the elevator, and find that there’s a break room on this floor, two small tables and several chairs scattered about, a counter on the back wall with pot brewing coffee. No one is in here at the moment; you take a seat and try to keep your legs from bouncing as you wait.

Professor Burnet is surprised when she comes in. “Oh! I thought you were off on Ula’Ula and I had a couple minutes to wrap some things up! Sorry for making you wait!”

“Oh, you’re fine, I’m the one being rude.”

She takes a seat across from you. “So what’s up?”

When you were flying over earlier, you remembered what had happened at Aether Paradise – you haven’t talked to her about it yet. “Well, you heard about the Ultra Wormhole that opened on Aether Paradise, right?”

Burnet nods. “They sent me their data a few days ago. I’m heading there to interview Miss Lusamine and the workers who were there at the time.” She looks at you. “How do you know about it?”

“I was there when it opened.”

Her eyes light up. “Oh my gosh, you were? What happened? What was it like?” She jumps up. “Wait just a moment.” She doesn’t run, but she’s definitely walking fast as she heads out of the room. In a couple minutes, she comes back with a notebook and a pen. “Please, tell me all about it.”

You talk about the strange rift and the creature that came out of it in as much detail as you can remember, her scribbling notes and asking questions the whole time, trying to glean the most she can from your memories. You try to describe the strange buzzing, static feeling in your head when it opened. She notes it down. “That’s interesting. I’ve only heard of a few other people having reactions like that. Maybe it’d be more common if more people were around when the wormholes opened…” She thinks to herself for a bit, idly scratching in a couple more sentences before saying, “Thanks for telling me. Oh, I need to call Hau and get an interview with him, too…”

It’s hard to shift subjects; the words you want to say stick in your throat. You feel silly asking about this, but the things that have been happening to you aren’t adding up. “Um, Professor,” you finally manage to start, “there are other legends than just the ones about the wormholes, right?”

“Of course. Alola has all kinds of lore from ancient days.” She flips to a clean page in her notebook. “I’ve mainly been studying what relates to the wormholes, so I might not be much help there, but the library in Malie City should have some good books on the islands’ mythology.”

“Well, um…” Your words end up coming out in a rush when you can finally get them out of your mouth. “Do you know anything about vampires?”

Her eyebrows rise. “A bit, yeah, just the general stories. Any particular reason why?”

You take a deep breath. “Okay, you’re probably going to think I’m crazy.” You tell her about last night, hesitating to mention who it was cornering you.

“First, it’d be irresponsible of me to let you go without telling you to be careful and not go down side roads you don’t know in a new city,” she says. “Even Konikoni and Hau’Oli have their odd spots and their seedy people.”

You shift in your seat. “I know, I know, it was stupid. But it was so close to the Pokemon Center and…” You think about it. “It’s almost like I was drawn there.”

“Still, be careful.” She sighs. “I hesitate to completely rule anything out without enough evidence against it, especially with all the strange discoveries we’ve made over the last several years.” She taps her pen on the notebook. “I mean, who knew we’d find the closest things to what we can call gods in Hoenn and Sinnoh? Or that they’d be found by kids, no less?”

“I sense a ‘but’ coming.”

Burnet smiles. “I also hesitate to believe something based on so little evidence. As important as eye witness accounts can be, they also have a certain element of… unreliability.” You start to say something; she puts a hand up to stop you. “I’m not saying you didn’t see what you saw. But from what Kukui told me, you had a pretty big day yesterday – maybe your emotions were running high, or you ate something funny, or you were just tired. Sometimes the mind likes to play tricks.” She scoots her chair closer and puts a hand on your shoulder. “And being accosted by a stranger in a dark alley at night, in a place you don’t know – your adrenaline was probably kicking in, along with who knows what else.”

She’s probably right. You know that. But you just can’t explain the silver away. “Why would my necklace burn his hand and not burn me?” you ask quietly, more to yourself than to her, as you reach up and run your fingers along the necklace.

Shrugging, she says, “That is a good question, if you’re sure of what you saw. Worth investigating. I’ve never heard of a metal allergy that works like that.”

You talk for a few more minutes after that – she wants to know how Lillie’s doing. But soon, she gets to her feet. “It’s been great to see you, but I need to get back to work.”

You stand. “Sorry for distracting you.”

She gives you a hug. “Oh, it’s no problem! Heck, you helped me with some of my research!” She pulls away and says, “Pull out your Dex.” She gives you her number. “Let me know how you’re doing every once in a while, alright?”

“I will.” She lets you take the elevator down to the first floor, heading for a set of stairs nearby. Once you’re out of the building, you call another Charizard. You have one more trip to make before you head back to Malie City.

Thankfully, the Charizard touches down to the side of Konikoni’s Pokemon Center – you don’t have far to walk. You enter Olivia’s shop, hoping she might be there instead of out on business.

She waves at you from behind the counter as she sorts out some stones. “How’s it going?”

“Alright,” you say. You talk for a moment about the trial on Mount Hokulani, how it’s changed since she was a kid. When the two of you fall quiet, you have to fight yourself to stop from biting your thumbnail – you don’t know how to bring this up. Finally, you quietly start with, “Thanks for the necklace.”

“Oh, no problem,” she says, keeping her voice hushed as well, with a kind smile. “It looks good on you.”

“It’s been… helpful.”

Her eyebrows raise as her mouth falls into a frown. “It has?” You nod. “I was hoping you wouldn’t need it, and I was just being too cautious, but… that’s good. Good.”

You lean forward on the counter, closer to her. “What do you know?”

She pauses. “I’m not allowed to talk about certain things,” she says. “But the kahunas have a certain amount of responsibility for the people of their island and the trial challengers facing them. With the way you’ve been going at Team Skull, bad enough to get Plumeria’s attention… I was afraid something might happen.”

“So you know something about –”

She presses her hand on top of yours. “You should avoid Guzma,” she says. “Stay as far away from him as you can.”

You remember last night. “I think he’ll be avoiding me.”

Her eyes go wide. “What happened?” You give her a quick summary. She squeezes your hand. “I’m sorry. I’m – I’m glad you had the necklace. That’s something.”

“Do you –” You hesitate. “Do you have anything else I could wear? Just in case?”

She comes out from behind the counter and shows you a spinning display case, two sides of which hold silver bracelets and rings. You look over them, considering their price and their size, wondering what would be helpful. Finally you settle on a cuff with another inlaid piece of moonstone. It’s more expensive, but if someone tried to grab you or you needed to hit them with something, it would probably do more damage.

When Olivia rings it up, the price doesn’t match the tag. “I can pay for it,” you insist. “You can’t just keep giving me stuff.”

“It’s my store, I’m allowed to decide who gets a discount,” she says.

“But – this stuff is so expensive –”

“Please. Stop worrying about it.” She takes your hand again. “I’ll feel better knowing that you’ve got some measure of protection. Some people… don’t know when to leave well enough alone.”

After trying to argue with her some more, you finally just hand her the money and pop on the cuff. You have to admit you partly bought it because you think it’s pretty. Once you’ve thanked her again, you set off for Malie City, sighing when you see the time that’s passed by the sun’s position in the sky. Most people can’t make it through Route 12 in a day, but should you start so late and guarantee at least one night on the road?

You head to the library, waving to Lillie and that girl who was helping her with books as you head for the section they were perusing yesterday. There aren’t any books specifically about vampires – you wish it were that easy. Instead you have to look at indexes and flip through pages, trying to glean anything of value.

Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot to go on. The general gist is that they have an ability to attract people and some amount of mind control, along with the typical blood-sucking legends. You shiver when you remember last night, wondering what Guzma was doing to you. Some books mention a weakness to sunlight, a couple a weakness to silver and aversion to running water, and in one book, a few tales about native islanders destroying vampires – usually with a spear through the heart before torching their bodies.

By the time you’re done researching, it’s late afternoon and there’s no way you’re heading out this late. You spend another night at the Pokemon Center, still having a hard time sleeping.

In the morning you still don’t feel great, but it’s time to move on. You stock up on supplies and make your way to Route 12, not looking forward to climbing a mountain.

When you get to the base of the mountain, you study the path above you and realize that it’s going to be difficult to cross some of the rockier patches – they would cut through your shoes, it looks like. You don’t think a Tauros would be able to handle them…

“Oh, hello, cousin!” You turn to see Hapu heading toward you with her Mudsdale. “Heading for your trial in Tapu Village, eh?”

“Well, I’m trying,” you tell her.

She looks up ahead where you’re looking and sees the problem. “Oh! Did no one give you a pager for Mudsdale?” You glance up at her massive horse. She pats his side. “Not this one, he sticks with me, but the ride Pokemon.”

“No.”

“Ah, that’s the problem! Will you hand me your pager?” She messes with it for a moment and gives it back. “You can call on Mudsdales now. That should make your journey a bit easier.” She grimaces as she looks up the mountain. “A bit.”

“Well, they don’t call ‘em the island trials for nothing.”

“They certainly don’t,” Hapu agrees. “Well, you have a good trip!” She heads back out into the fields of Route 12. You wonder what she was doing here in the first place.

Even with the Mudsdale’s help, you only make it partway up the mountain – halfway, at least, you hope. You settle down close to the rocky face of the mountain after trying to grab enough twigs and dry grass for a small fire. It’s not much, but Growlithe easily sets it alight and it’s enough to heat some food over, which is all you really needed with Alola’s natural heat. You look out at the stars over the ocean and settle back on your bedroll, enjoying the peaceful night. The trials may be more challenging than you thought they’d be at first, but times like this make the journey worth it.

“Moon’s pretty, isn’t it?”

You jump and nearly knock your tent over, you’re so startled. “Who the fuck –” You look around wildly, letting Growlithe out again. From out of the shadows up the path steps – Plumeria? You get to your feet. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m not allowed to enjoy a little hike?” she asks.

“Where did you even come from?!” She points back up the path and rolls her eyes. You repeat, “What are you doing here?”

“Seriously, relax.” She leans back against the rocks. “Not the most comfortable place to set up for the night.”

“Like I had so many choices.”

“Point.” She sinks down so she’s sitting – she clearly thinks she’s okay to stay here. “So where’re you from?”

“Why do you care?”

“Well, G said you’re not from Alola, so –” she shrugs with her shoulders, “I was wonderin’ where you came from. Why you came all the way out here.”

“Okay, seriously, why are you here?”

Her gold eyes glint in the dying firelight. “Can’t a girl just want to talk?”

“Not when they’re one of the leaders of Team Skull.”

“We really that big a deal to you?”

“You’re stealing Pokemon.”

“Trying.” She grins. “And failing, mostly. I love our kids but like I’ve said, they’re numbskulls. You really think they’re doin’ much in the scheme of things?”

This is so confusing. “So, what, you don’t care that they’re bad at it?”

“I’m not gonna feel bad that we do what we have to do to get by, but the Pokemon stealin’ – well, I have my opinions.” She looks up at you. “You ever think about why kids join Team Skull?”

You blink. “No.”

“’Cause they don’t have anywhere else to go.” She can hold your gaze as easily as Guzma. “’Cause it’s better than being out on the streets, fending for yourself by yourself, or it’s better than the places you came from.” She looks out at the ocean. “We’ve got our own little family goin’ here, and I’m never gonna be sorry for that. Even the things we do that I don’t necessarily like, we do ‘em for a reason.”

“And you’re just expecting me to ignore all the bad things because of that?”

“Nope.” She crosses her legs and tries to lean into the rock and get comfortable. “C’mon, sit down, you’re makin’ my neck hurt.”

She’s obviously not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. You settle yourself away from her, near your tent. For a while no one speaks. It makes you itch. Finally, you ask, “So did you want to talk about something?”

“This is nice.” She looks over and smiles at you. “You know how much quiet you get when you’re around a billion teenagers all day? Not much.”

You don’t respond, but if you’re honest to yourself, you’re getting kind of tired of quiet. You’ve spent most of this journey alone, having little interaction with people outside of cities and trial sites. Sure, there have been trainers along the way to battle, but they’re less interested in making friends than in making money or training their Pokémon. It’s not like when you were in Johto, able to tag along with classmates and friends from school, or even Unova, where the cities were big enough to get lost in, days on the road would pass with the whir of a bicycle under you, and people wanted to talk to the daughter of the new Fairy gym leader. Here you’re on foot again, and people are friendly but not friends. You’re not used to the only sound hitting your ears being nature’s noises, sometimes for days.

“You likin’ Alola so far?” Plumeria asks suddenly.

“Why do you care?”

“Just curious. I mean, we don’t talk much to tourists –” she grins – “outside of the usual.”

“I’m not a tourist.”

“You’re still new here. Sometimes it’s nice to have perspective.” She looks intently at you. “So what do you think?”

“I’m enjoying it so far.” You don’t quite want to admit to what you were thinking about earlier. “Each island’s been pretty neat. And the trials are a nice change-up from gym battling.”

She sighs. “You’ve probably never even come close to failing them, have you?”

“A couple times, but I pulled through.” You glance over at her. “Did you?”

“Couldn’t get past the trial you’re coming up on.”

You blink. “What?”

“I didn’t have the right Pokemon, it was in a different spot than where it is now, and the previous trial captain – well, he was an asshole.” She hugs one knee to her chest. “I think they actually lightened it up after his bullshit.”

“That… sounds unfair.”

She shrugs. “It was. But everyone said this is how it is and just told me to get over it because this Is the real world and not everyone’s gonna pass.”

You feel kind of bad for her now. “Harsh.”

“It’s why we want to change things. Shake shit up a little. Give a little power back to the other kids that couldn’t hack it. You’re looked down on if you don’t finish your trials, like it’s supposed to be some mark of shame. I think that’s total bull.”

“Did Guzma fail his trials?”

She shakes her head. “Nah. He was one of the better kids to go at it recently.”

Recently? “How old is he?”

“Twenty-six.” She scoots closer so she can talk more quietly. “I guess ‘recently’ wasn’t the best word – since I was a kid.”

“So why’s he doing all this, if he became an island trial champion?”

“He’s got his reasons. Plenty of ‘em.”

“Like…”

“You have to ask him. And even then he probably won’t tell you some of them, anyway.”

You roll your eyes. “I don’t exactly feel like running into him again.”

She smirks. “He likes comin’ on strong when he’s interested in someone.”

“That’s… one way to put it.”

“He’s not a bad guy. You just have to get to know him.”

You remember the night in the alley. Your insides curl, partly from discomfort and partly desire, wishing you’d gotten to do more with him before he just ran off. If that wasn’t confusing enough, they merge and mix with the attraction you’re feeling for Plumeria and the other feelings flowing through you until it’s all a strange muddle of confusing emotions. The attraction is easy to pick out, but so is the guilt and the feeling that you can’t follow up on it.

A hand waves in front of your face. “You still here?” Plumeria asks. She’s nearly touching you from her current position and you find you don’t quite mind.

“This is all really confusing,” you say, more honest than you meant to  be.

“What is?”

You get the feeling she knows, but you still need to put it into words. “I just thought I’d do the trials and head back home and – and – well, I don’t know, really, but just settle into somethinig and just be normal and ordinary and me. And then you guys come in and mess with people and Ifeel like I have to stop you because I can’t let bullies pick on weaker trainers, but then you and Guzma show up and –” You realize you’re about to admit your feelings and change the subject. “And Kukui’s saying I might be champion once he gets the League started and Aether’s treating me like I’m special somehow and those stupid wormholes keep opening up  and –”

“Okay, okay,” she says, laughing a little. “Sorry I asked.” When you fall silent, she backs up. “I’m not saying I didn’t want to hear it, just, yeah – that’s a lot of weird shit and some of it I don’t really even know about.” She puts her arms up  behind her head, leaning back. “And we’re making it worse, I know that. I mean, we’re not gonna stop doin’ what we do just because you’re having a hard time. But I get it.”

“Do you?” You lean a bit closer to her.

“Shit’s complicated for you, shit’s been complicated for me.” She shrugs. “It’s easy to wish it were all simple and neat, but it’s not.” She looks up into your eyes. “Just gotta deal with it as it comes.”

She’s in your space and suddenly she’s close and her lips are pressing against yours and her hand sits on your shoulder and what the hell is happening. You don’t want it to stop – without thinkinga about it, you lean forward and rest a hand on her arm. Her other hand brushes your cheek, your ear, burying in your hair, pulling you closer to her as she tugs at your lower lip with hers. It’s soft, simple, sweet – you want her, she wants you back, you both get what your need.

Eventually you remember yourself and the points made during the conversation – you pull away. Should you really be making out with one of the top members of Team Skull? She sees the distress on your face and looks uncertain herself. “That was good, right?” she asks.

You don’t know how to respond. Your emotions are tossing and turning inside you again, melting and dripping down into your stomach, surging up in a fiery column to your chest and bursting into bright sparks before sinking again. Every piece of you raging to push ahead and kiss her again is met by a new doubt or a new memory of who she is, what you’re doing – everyting’s a mess.

Her mouth hangs slightly open, waiting for an answer – two of her teeth are longer than they should be. You gaze into her golden eyes and find yourself unable to pull away. “You’re… like Guzma, aren’t you?” You can’t quite bring yourself to say the word to her – it sounds too silly, childish.

She looks shocked for a moment. Then she grins, showing off her teeth. “In some ways, yes.” She untangles her hand from your hair, coming forward to cup your face, thumb brushing over your cheek.

You can’t bring yourself to let go of her arm. “This is not helping the confusion thing.”

“Did you like it?” You feel almost as if you can’t lie, but you’re still reluctant to answer, slowly nodding as she keeps staring into what feels like your soul. “Then just enjoy it. Be in the moment.” She pulls you forward into another kiss.

This time you break it. “I just – I can’t – this is – I don’t know.” You pull your hand off of her – you notice it’s the wrist without the silver cuff. She’s been very careful to avoid your neck. “This is too much.”

“Your brain overloading?” she asks. She doesn’t look hurt – if anything, she’s a little smug. She lets go of you and gets to her feet. “Take some time to think about it, then. We’ll run into each other again sooner or later.” Without waiting for a reply, she walks off, back up the path, disappearing around the bend.

You toss and turn through the night, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The rocky ground under your bedroll isn’t helping matters. You’re starting to wonder if everything in Alola is conspiring to keep you from resting properly.

Then for a while you wonder if you’re crazy, if this is all just sleep deprivation or something about the air or that you’re just, well, going insane. Vampires can’t be real, right?

Can they?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to make this chapter super long in order to compensate for my updating less, but I'm itching to go ahead and post something so I don't make y'all wait more, so here this is - I hope it's worthy of being its own chapter.

The vivid dreams you have when you do manage to sleep makes you wonder if the whole night was some contrivance of your mind when you finally wake up. It’s already midmorning – this bad sleep is really messing with your schedule. With a groan, you start packing up your camp and call a Mudsdale to help you up the next length of the trail.

As you make your way up the mountain, you wonder how Plumeria could have met you – there’s more terrain that can’t be crossed without a Mudsdale, and there was no sign she’d used one. Maybe you did make last night up. But the kissing felt so real – you can’t let it go. It had to have happened, right?

In the evening, you make it to the secluded shore and then to the mobile home camp on a flat part of the mountain. People there tell you that if you go through the camp, you’ll enter Haina Desert – but also warn you it’s tricky to navigate. Maybe later, you think – you want a night indoors, trying to get some decent sleep. You walk the rest of the way to Tapu Village – there’s no more rocky areas to cross and riding the Mudsdale just made your legs chafed and sore in an entirely different way from walking.

Once you get to Tapu Village, you take in the sight of construction happening to the side, up the steep incline of the mountain, and ruined buildings in the town – then see the Pokemon Center. You gladly claim a room and pass out. It’s not the most restful sleep you’ve ever had – your dreams are still vivid and odd, and a couple times you wake up from one to find yourself in another – but at least it’s more than yesterday.

In the morning, people point you toward a path jutting out from the Pokémon Center. You follow it to the sight of an abandoned Thrifty Megamart, but the trial workers won’t let you in – the captain isn’t there right now. With a mental groan, you turn and head back to the village, then look at your Dex. Lillie’s sent you a message asking if you made it to the village. You shoot her a message before you walk up the road a bit, glancing at the tall grass outside the town – at least you might be able to catch a Pokémon or two. Before you can do much, Lillie sends another message asking you to meet her at Aether House – it’s at the end of this path.

Feeling slightly ornery, you stop long enough to catch a Vulpix. It’s bizarre to see them here, with their white coats and Ice type moves. You knew in your head that Alolan variants could even have type differences, but it’s odd seeing them up close. You wonder how the new addition would feel meeting with your Vulpix from Johto.

Finally you head up the road, getting to the Aether House at mid-afternoon. It’s on the beginning of Route 16, before the route turns into a river filled with impassible rocks. You look up the river before you head to the house, wondering how you’ll get up past that – Lapras probably can’t pass those. Maybe they give you a Ride Pokémon to go further after the trial here.

You knock on the door and then find that it’s open – when you enter, someone greets you at a front desk. When you heard “House,” you weren’t expecting what feels like a doctor’s waiting room to be waiting for you. You ask after Lillie and the receptionist pages her room while you look around.  When she comes out, she’s with Hau and that other girl, the one in the purple dress. After you hug Lillie, she comes up and squeezes your hand hard, saying, “Hi, I didn’t introduce myself the other day! I’m Acerola!”

“Hi,” you answer back, trying to discretely shake your hand and get some feeling back into it.

Lillie notices your cuff. “Can I see that?” she asks.

“Sure.” You take it off and hand it over. A sudden shiver runs through you as you wonder if she has any idea about vampires…

She rotates it a couple times, studying the moonstone with more care than you'd expect from an eleven-year-old, then gives it back. “It's a beautiful bracelet. Where'd you find it?” You explain about Olivia's shop. “Wow, she's a great artist.” Now you feel even worse about letting her give you a discount.

After a few minutes of small talk, Hau asks, “So, you ready for your trial?”

You nod. “I tried going to the trial site but they said the captain wasn't there.”

Acerola smiles. “That'd be me! I was wondering who I got messaged about earlier.”

“I did mine yesterday!” Hau says proudly, holding up his hand to show off his Z-ring. “I got ahead of you for once!” He grins sheepishly. “Actually, I got a little worried 'cause of that, so I wanted to stick around until you got here.”

You lightly swat his shoulder. “Why didn't you just message me?”

His eyes widen. “Oh yeah!” He pops himself on the head. “I should've done that.” He looks up. “But Lillie was messaging you and giving me updates, so it's not like I was completely in the dark.” He shivers. “Not like the trial.”

“The trial?”

“Yeah, the trial.” He raises his hands above his head, curls his fingers, and waves them around like a Haunter. “It's spooky!”

“Incredibly spooky!” Acerola says, dragging out the word while imitating him. “Actually, we should probably get going if you want to do the trial while it's still light out.” She smiles. “Or if you're really brave, we can wait until tonight!”

“I'd like to do it now, please.”

“Can I come with you guys?” Hau asks. “I wanna catch some more Pokémon around Tapu Village.”

“I'd like to come as well, if that's okay,” Lillie says. “I'd like to see Professor Kukui if he has time.”

Acerola says, “The more, the merrier! Let's go!” She grabs your arm and starts to drag you out the door. It takes a second for you to get your feet untangled and move at her pace.

Once you've gotten to town, everyone splits up – Acerola leads you down the path you took earlier. “To the Megamart!”

“It's an unusual place to have a trial,” you observe.

“But it's perfect! You'll see why once you're in it.”

Turns out the trial's a Ghost-type challenge. You jump the first time a Ghastly jiggles a cash register and throws it open, spilling dust into the air as it laughs, but you manage to keep your cool until you get to the back room. The creature inside tries its best to hide from you and spook you as well, but eventually you trap it with Decidueye's Spirit Shackle – it looks like a poorly stitched Pikachu doll with shadowy arms extending out to claw and strike at Decidueye. According to your Dex, it's called Mimikyu. It takes a few of your Pokemon to bring it down.

When you finish, Acerola asks, “Did you have fun?”

“Uh… kinda?”

“Nothing like a good spook to make you more alert!” she says happily. That's one way of putting it…

“Are there more Mimikyus in the Megamart?”

“Yep! As far as we know, they only appear here!” She glances at her Dex. “I'm not expecting anymore trialgoers today. Feel free to explore.”

Walking back into the abandoned building is a little easier now that you know what to expect. It takes nearly an hour to track down a Mimikyu and catch it, but it's a welcome addition to your team – dark, ghost, and fairy-type moves come in handy.

You meet back up with Hau and Lillie at the Pokémon Center, and together the four of you head back to Aether House after Acerola says it's alright if you stay the night there. It's late evening by the time you get back, the sun almost completely gone. When Acerola opens the door, you hear an unexpected sound of children crying.

Lillie and Acerola rush in, trying to reassure the kids – two of them who look like brother and sister; the older can't be more than seven. You're not an expert with kids and you don't know these, but maybe there's something you can do to help.

As the kids slowly calm down, they manage to tell what happened. “Team Skull,” the sister sobs. “Th-those bullies!”

“They took my Yungoos!” the boy shouts, angry.

“Oh, no, that's horrible,” Lillie says, hugging the girl close.

“Where'd they come from?” you ask.

Acerola answers. “They must have come from their base. It's up Route 17.” She bites her lip. “Uncle Nanu's up near them, but he may not be around right now.” She pulls out her Dex and starts a message.

You pull yours out, too, checking the map of the island. It doesn't seem far, as long as you keep to the shore and stay on the paths through Route 17. “What, did they build a hideout there?”

“No, they took over an abandoned town. Po Town.” Acerola points to a gated area at the end of the route.

“You're not going to go there, are you?” Lillie asks.

“I’ll get your Yungoos back,” you tell the kids. To Lillie, you say, “Someone’s got to show these –” you want to swear, but you’re in a room full of kids – “These jerks that they can’t just get away with whatever they feel like doing, especially stealing from people so helpless.” Mysterious ulterior motives be damned, stealing Pokémon is wrong and you won’t let them keep doing it.

“Leave tomorrow, at least,” Lillie says. “It’s already dark out.”

“How long does it take to get to Po Town?” you ask Acerola.

“If you can’t get there by Charizard, a full day,” she tells you. “If you leave early tomorrow morning, you’d probably get there by nightfall.”

You get up. “Then I’m leaving now.”

“Please, won’t it be safer in the morning?” Lillie asks.

If Guzma’s what you think he is, daylight is much better. “No. I’ll be fine, Lillie, I promise.”

When you turn towards the door, Hau starts to come with you. “I’m going too.”

You think about it, then shake your head. “Stay here. What if something else happens while I’m gone?”

“You can’t take on all of Team Skull by yourself!”

“Watch me.” Before anyone can argue with you any further, you head out the door.

Acerola follows you to the shore. “You’ll need a Sharpedo to get past the rocks up here. Lapras can’t handle them.” You hand her your ride pager. “Be safe, okay? Try to see if Uncle Nanu’s there to help. He lives in the police station.”

You blink. “ _In_ the police station?”

She tries to smile. “Po Town’s a little odd.”

“Team Skull’s made it their base, it has to be.”

“That’s not all of it, but, yeah, that didn’t help.” She gives the pager back. “The weather’s always rainy up there. Try to find somewhere dry to sleep.”

“Thanks.” You call a Sharpedo and head up Route 16, getting jolted every time the Pokémon bashes its way through the rocks.

You don’t get too far during the night – the days of traveling and nights of bad sleep are wearing you down. You at least make it maybe a third of the way up Route 17, which is experiencing some light rain, before you hastily prop up a tarp with sticks to protect you from the drizzle as you sleep.

It’s still raining when you wake up and your gear is now muddy. Groaning, you try to pack everything as neatly as you can, wrapping the wet tarp around your backpack, keeping the dryer side to the fabric, hoping it’ll keep everything in your bag from getting soaked. The day doesn’t get any dryer as you head through Ula’Ula Meadow and up Route 18 – in fact, the rain falls heavier as you go along, hitting you despite your umbrella thanks to the wind blowing the drops sideways. Maybe you could’ve appreciated the flowers and the new variant of Oricorio in the Meadow if you weren’t so miserable – at least someone had the bright idea to make walkways above the flowers and more importantly, the mud.

The rain’s lightened to a drizzle again and the sun, starting to get low in the sky, is threatening to pop out from behind a cloud when you find the police station Acerola mentioned. All the lights are off and the walls are covered in graffiti. You knock on the door a few times, but no one answers. With a frustrated sigh, you make yourself go back to the road and head up towards the walls you can see ahead of you.

Where there once might have been a gate, there are trial barriers blocking the way. What the hell? You’ve only heard of two trials on Ula’Ula. You try pushing them open, but to no avail – they don’t seem to budge from this side. You crouch down and get ready to jump, when someone approaches from the other side of the gate. You get out a Pokéball, wishing you didn’t have to get your Pokémon wet – you can’t even risk letting your Growlithe out here.

It’s not someone on Team Skull, as far as you can tell once they get close – their, his clothing is dark gray, and it looks a lot like the uniforms the police in Malie City wear. He’s got light gray hair and his face has a few lines and wrinkles – too old to be in Team Skull, probably. Then you notice his eyes. They’re bright red.

He comes to the gate. You watch each other for a few minutes. Finally, you crack, worn out, soaked to the bone, and feeling like you’re going half crazy. “Are you a vampire?”

He actually grins at that. You don’t want to get closer, but you wish you could see his teeth better. “How’d you guess?”

You’re not taking any chances. You back up and hold your arm in front of you, the one with the silver bracelet. “Are you one of them?”

His mouth drops into a frown. “You’re serious.” You stare at him; he stares back, not a muscle moving in his face. After a moment, he sighs and opens the barrier, letting it clack shut behind him. “So how did you find out?”

You back away further. He glances at your wrist. “Olivia made that, didn’t she?” You don’t answer. “Necklace is her work, too. She knows she’s not supposed to talk about this.” He shrugs. “And she’s usually good at keeping quiet, too.”

“She didn’t tell me,” you say, trying to defend her. “Not – not directly.”

“But she thought you needed protection.” He stays where he is, not trying to approach you.

“I've been making myself a pain in Team Skull's ass,” you admit.

The man grins again. “That explains some of what Guzma's been grumbling about lately.”

“Are you part of Team Skull?”

That makes him laugh, a hoarse, coughing laugh. “Lord, no. What gave you that idea?”

“You just came out of their base.”

He glances behind him. “Oh yeah. I suppose that's a little suspicious.” He starts to walk away, back down the path. “Let's talk somewhere dryer.”

“Why should I trust you?” you call to his retreating back.

“Police officer,” he calls back over his shoulder.

“Just because you're wearing a uniform –”

He stops and turns back to you. “I'm not gonna eat you, alright? Bodies are too much of a mess to clean up and get rid of.” He sounds like he's had to do it before. “So come on. I'm not letting you walk in there unprepared.”

You wind up following him back to the police station. “So you're Acerola's uncle?” you ask as he unlocks the door.

“Everybody here calls old men uncle,” he grouses. “We're not related.” You notice some Meowths cmg out of the woods and up to the door.

“But you know her.”

“Since she was little - well, younger.” He gets the door open and lets you in. There are more Meowths inside, several more. A couple come up to examine you and rub against your legs until they realize you're wet. “Sit down, you're not going to ruin the furniture.”

You set your bags down and carefully sit on a chair. You cringe as the cushions push your clothes up against your skin, making you feel somehow even wetter. Also, now there's cat hair sticking to you. You really hope this guy doesn't have a mirror.

Speaking of which… “How were you just walking around in broad daylight?” you ask as the man sits down on the couch. A few cats pile into his lap and press themselves against him, ignoring his drizzled-on clothes.

He starts scratching one of their heads. “It's a bit more complicated than just walking into sunlight and burned to a crisp. With the weather here, I can stay out maybe twenty minutes before I start melting from the sun instead of the rain.” He looks up at you. “I'm Nanu. And you are?”

You introduce yourself quickly. “So how do you –”

He waves his hand. “We’re not going to have some interrogation all about how vampires work right now. Trust me, not worth it.”

“I was going to ask how you get into their base,” you mutter.

“Oh, that.” He pulls one of a pair of fighting Meowths away from his leg and sets it on the other side of the couch. “That's easy. I walk in. Or just zap in if I don't feel like walking.”

“Uh, zap in?”

“Teleport,” he clarifies.

“So they just… let you in? Even though you're police?”

“They show good behavior - well, relatively good – and I don't put them in jail or send them home.” He sees your confused look. “Team Skull's a haven for misfit kids, kids who have trouble at home, things like that. I try to avoid doing it if I don't have to.”

“Even when they steal Pokémon?”

Nanu snorts. “How successful have they been at that?” He stops and backs up. “Before now, at least?”

“So you know about the Yungoos?”

“That's why I was up there just now.”

“Did you get it back?”

He sighs. “I tried, but Guzma's not exactly keen on listening to me.”

“Can't you make him give it up?” You try to think of what he’d do. “I dunno, do some vampire trick to make him stop?”

“Kid, if I could do that, I would have a long time ago,” Nanu says. “’Vampire tricks’ don’t tend to work well on other vampires.”

“So he is one.”

“Yeah, and so’s Plumeria.”

“Are any of the kids vampires?”

“No. And I’m keeping it that way.”

This is weird. “So you can keep them from turning kids into vampires, but you can’t make them give up a single Pokémon.”

Nanu rubs his face. “Look, kid, if this was simple, we wouldn’t be having this problem.”

You glare at him. “I’m not a kid.”

“Compared to me, all of you are kids.”

“Okay, but can’t you, like, ‘zap in’ and grab the thing and get out?”

“I can’t transport something else living, or something else really – just what’s on me.” He reaches down to stop a Meowth that’s trying to use his leg as a scratching post. “And they’d know I did it. There’d be repercussions. So I tried to reason with him. Try talking your way around him, it’s not usually too hard.”

“And that didn’t work?”

He stops petting the cat. “They’ve gotten a lot more stubborn lately. And they’ve had their hands on more cash than they used to, if some of the things I’ve seen are any indication. I think something’s up but they’re not about to let me snoop around and find out.” He sits up and looks at you. “So what was your plan.”

You shrug. “I’ve beaten Guzma in a battle before. The kids don’t have many powerful Pokemon. If Plumeria’s there too it might be difficult-” for more reasons than you feel like discussing, “- but I think I can take him on. Take the Yungoos back.”

“That’s if he’s willing to agree to it.” He stares at you pointedly. “You realize this is a man who could kill you, right?”

“Well, you’re the one who said how much of a mess bodies are to clean up.”

“I don’t think he cares too much about that.”

You give a little shudder, partly from the cold setting in from being wet and partly from the thought. “I mean, he’s not going to do that over a Pokémon, is he?”

“The problem with Guzma is that he’s pretty unpredictable. He was pretty moody when we talked. If you go, he could be worse, he could be better.” He starts pulling the Meowths off of his lap. “You’re sure you’re going to do this?”

You nod. “I promised those kids I’d get their Pokémon back.”

“If he’s angry, just get out. I don’t care if you have the Yungoos or not, leave.” Nanu gets to his feet, not even bothering to brush the cat hair off. “And don’t spend more time there than you have to.” He looks you over. “I’d offer to give you some dryer clothes, but considering what they’re setting up, I’d say you just want one ruined set.”

You blink. “What they’re setting up?”

“Guzma knew you’d come. He’s not about to let you waltz in and run out.” He smirks. “Think of it as another trial.”

“Great,” you groan.

“Leave your stuff here, at least what you don’t need. You can come back after and get it. At least then they can’t steal it.” You nod and take a purse that you use in towns out of your backpack, filling it with potions and a few other essentials. When you get to your feet, Nanu walks over and pats your shoulder. “Good luck.”

“Thanks?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is bizarre and probably flows poorly and is poorly written but I got to some of the things I really wanted to do, dammit.

You make your way back to the trial barriers and try pushing them again, but they still won’t open. You make a few attempts at jumping it and manage to pull yourself over with only a few bruises on your knees and shins.

Two grunts greet you with a “Hey!” and “Get her!” Thus begins the arduous trip through Po Town.

The battles aren’t bad – as you thought, most of the kids don’t have very high-level Pokémon. The problem is getting through the town itself – they’ve blocked off the straight road down to a mansion, which looks to be the destination after you see how abandoned the houses look. There are a lot of hastily thrown together blockades, mainly trash and refuse along with rotting furniture stacked too high and too precariously to climb safely. You make it over the ones you can, but soon you’re left darting towards the houses on either side of you, trying to find other ways through.

The other ways turn out to be crawling on your stomach and squeezing through tiny gaps in the giant bushes that separate the houses. Nearly every one’s guarded by a kid or two. By the time you stand in front of the mansion, you’re already tired, covered in mud and scratched up. But you have to keep going.

More kids take you on inside the mansion, but you almost don’t care, happy to be out of the rain and the mud and done getting stabbed by branches. It only takes a few potions to keep your Pokémon in good shape, thankfully. The gang’s turned the place into some kind of a maze, piles of garbage and more wrecked furniture blocking your way at times, a broken chandelier surrounded by shattered glass on the third floor staircase keeping you from advancing to what must be Guzma’s room. You make your way to a large open door to what must be the balcony you saw outside; a grunt stands outside of it, trying to glare at you.

You stare back with all the anger and annoyance that’ve bubbled up over this whole stupid trip. It scares him into moving out of your way. You stalk outside to see what he’s guarding.

It’s raining harder now, which is great, because you have to walk over a precarious bridge to window that’s made of what looks to be unsecured wooden boards. Seeing it, you choke back a sob and steel yourself. You bend low and make a dash for it, surprised that the wood is at least mostly stable under you. It’s still a relief when you get to the other side.

You stomp inside and up to the two kids guarding a door at the top of the unusable staircase. “He’s in there?” The kids nod, staring at you. You don’t even want to know what you look like right now. They don’t move – you push past them and into the room.

The first thing you see is Guzma sitting on an armchair, looking like some kind of throne, on a platform, smirking at you with a look you kind of want to punch off of his face. You barely take in the rest of the room, overwhelmed by anger and raw disbelief. “How fucking pretentious _are_ you?”

He lets out a bark of a laugh. “Man, what cat dragged _you_ in?”

“This is _your_ fucking fault!” you shout at him, pointing a shaking finger at him.

“Man, language from little miss goody-two-shoes, wasn’t expecting that.” He gets to his feet and steps off the platform. “Okay, I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad.” He turns to the grunt who’s been standing in the room this whole time, unnoticed, with the Yungoos at his feet. “Take the Pokémon and your friends outside and take that shit down. Tell the others y’all did a little _too_ good at your job this time.” The grunt nods, picks up the snarling ferret, and leaves.

Once he’s gone, Guzma looks at you and sighs. “Damn. I said a challenge, not an ass whipping.”

“Fuck you.”

He reaches out to pat your shoulder. “Drop the feisty act, okay? You’re not –”

You shove his arm away, trying to roll his wrist under yours so you can burn him with your cuff. “You think I’m _acting_?”

“Whoa, okay, okay.” He pulls away before you can touch him more and walks behind you, opening the door. You turn to watch, not wanting to let him out of your sight. At least he’s not acting too dangerous right now. And you still feel some strange attraction to him, but it’s not the overwhelming surge it was last time, just one feeling amongst many.

He looks out in the hall for a moment before looking back at you. “Come get cleaned up. You’re a fucking mess.”

“Really now?!” You want to rip him in half. “Just – fucking battle me or whatever the hell you want to do and let’s get this over with.”

“Go to the bathroom.” He points at the other door down the hall. When you just stand there, shaking and glaring at him, he gets a confused look on his face. “I said, go –”

“Go fuck yourself.”

He darts around behind you and grabs your shoulders before you can move, steering you out the door and into the hall. “Seriously, you’re soaked. Go clean yourself up.” His voice is softer now, more caring. He opens the door and pushes you inside before you can react. Then the door slams shut. You try the knob – it won’t budge. You pound on the door, screaming incoherently, but he just shouts, “Not lettin’ you out ‘til there’s no mud on you!”

You slump against the door, exhausted by your rage and the whole day, sobbing in defeat as you try the knob a few more times. When you finally pull yourself off of it, you’re happy to see muddy wet streaks down the peeling white paint and graffiti.

There’s a towel slung over a bar, but it looks used. You search around and find a few relatively fresh ones and start to slowly wipe yourself down. You want to get out of this place eventually, and there aren’t any windows or other ways to escape.

The act of cleaning yourself becomes somewhat soothing, scrubbing away mud and water to reveal raw, pink skin and scabbing red cuts. You have to wet some spots to get them clean, but at least the water coming out of the sink is warm. The towels are completely ruined by the time you’ve gotten down to your shins and you couldn’t care less.

The door suddenly opens a crack. You throw yourself at it, but it thrusts open a little farther, nearly catching you in the face, as a hand tosses in some clothes. Then it shuts faster than you can grab hold of it. “What the hell is this?” you ask, picking up an oversized shirt and an undersized pair of sweatpants.

“You can’t stay in those clothes,” Guzma says through the door.

“Fuck –”

“Fuck me, I get it, just put ‘em on.” You grumble to yourself as you throw the clothes on the counter. While you struggle to slip your wet clothes off, Guzma says, “So you met Nanu?”

“Why do you care?”

“He blocked your mind off. I can’t see your thoughts.”

You stop suddenly. “You _what_?”

There’s a pause. “I thought he woulda told you about that.”

You give a full-body shudder. “Okay, what the hell are you trying to do to me?”

“Wasn’t gonna make you do anything.” Another pause. “Except make you get in the bathroom and do all this nicely. You arguing is really making this difficult.”

“Oh no, things are _hard_ for you,” you snarl.

You can barely hear him give an exasperated sigh. “I get it, alright? We were a little too rough with you.”

Trying to wring out your bra in the tub, you ask, “So you were mind-controlling me that night you tried to – whatever the hell you were trying to do?”

“Shit, no!” he practically shouts. “I mean, I can't control the – the phero – phero – whatever Plumes calls it, the attraction, but – you really think I'd do that?”

“Why should I believe you wouldn't?” Your bra is still pretty damp, but it's all you've got and you're not walking out without it on.

“I don't – I don't _force_ people to do just about anything. That's – people shouldn't be forced into something.” He sounds bitter. You wonder if there's a story behind this – then you try to stop caring. “Besides, where's the loyalty in that? The trust?”

“Things you really care about,” you throw at him as you start to get dressed again.

“Yeah, I do.” He falls quiet as you slip the shirt over your head – the thing swallows you. Then you try wiggling into the pants. It's not easy – they're obviously not Guzma's, and whoever wears these is thinner than you. The material is stretchy, at least, but they're still tight.

You transfer your Pokéballs from your shorts pocket to your purse, dig a hair brush out of a drawer, and try to get your hair in some semblance of decent before you try the knob again. This time it turns and the door opens a crack before it bumps into something. Then it opens all the way, pulling you along with it. You stumble out into the hallway, turning to see Guzma grinning at you from the side of the door. “Feel better?”

“Why do you care?”

“Can't have you gettin' sick and dyin' in here when the old man's on my ass.” He looks at your face and stops grinning, “Bad joke.”

“So can we battle now?” you ask, annoyed.

“What?” He has to think for a second. “Over the Yungoos?”

“You could just give it to me and let me go.” He shakes his head. You try reasoning with him, though he doesn't seem like a reasonable guy. “I know Plumeria doesn't like stealing Pokémon. I doubt you do either, if you haven't been lying to me.”

“Doesn't matter if I like it,” he answers.

“Why?”

“Because it doesn't.”

“Well, if that's true, then I guess you don't.” He just stares at you. “So just give me the Yungoos, I go give it back, your conscience is clear.”

He laughs. “Nice try, but no.” He looks at you with sudden interest. “What if you do me a favor?”

You back up and glare at him. “ _Really?_ ”

“Yeah really, I –“ His eyes widen. “Ugh, no, not like _that._ What was I just telling you?”

“Then what?”

“Haven't fed in a while. Need some blood.”

You step further back, ending up against the railing. “How do I know you're not just gonna kill me?”

“Were you listening to me at all?” Now he's starting to look annoyed. “Even if I wanted to, bodies aren't worth dealin' with, 'specially with Nanu on my ass.”

“You could just be lying to me –“

As you speak, he walks toward you. Before you can react, he raises his hand to your cheek and turns your head sideways. “I push a little harder, I snap your neck.” He grabs your forearms, squeezing hard. “Or I could just tear into your arm or your leg until I hit the right artery and let you bleed out.” He takes hold of your chin, tilting your head so you're looking into his eyes. “Or I could get more creative if I wanted it to _hurt_. You think I just sat here waitin’ for you to come all day? I could sense you from outside the gate. I could've just told Nanu to go fuck himself and killed you before he could stop me. I could’ve just snuck up behind you in Malie and gotten rid of you.” It feels almost like he's looking inside you, his stare is so piercing. “If I wanted you dead, you'd be fucking dead. The jewelry's cute and good for a surprise, but I know about it. And what good did it do you? It burned my hand. I still got plenty of other shit I could fuck you up with.” He bares his teeth in a twisted smile, showing off his elongated canines. “So trust me, I don’t want you dead, even though you’re _really_ startin’ to piss me off.”

You’re shaking. He won’t stop holding your gaze. You swallow and try to calm down. Nanu said to run if he was angry. If this is just him _starting_ to get angry, you’re pretty sure you don’t want to see the real thing.

He’s still staring at you. “Do you get it?”

“O-okay.”

He lets go of you. “Okay, so, three options. We battle, and this time I’ll give you a real beat-down. You let me bite you. Or you just run off with your tail between your legs and we forget this ever happened.”

You rub your arms where he was grabbing you. They still hurt. “What were you saying earlier about not forcing people into shit earlier?”

He shrugs. “Not forcing you. We can battle it out if you really think you can beat me again. It'll take longer.” He starts walking back toward his door. “I know which option I want. What sounds good to you?”

“We’re battling.”

“Fine.” You blink. He reaches into his hoodie’s pocket.

“Two on two.”

Guzma looks up at you. “Huh?”

You pick out your Pokéballs. “You’re right, a full battle would take too long. Two on two.”

“And people say I’m cocky.” He pulls out an Ultra Ball. “Fine. You wanna make sure I give you a beatdown? Bring it on.” He’s completely dropped the biting thing. Was he serious about that?

He settles into a crouch and throws out Golisopod. You were expecting that – you toss out Decidueye. What you weren’t expecting was for him to take the first move. “First Impression!” The giant bug slams into the owl claws-first. It manages to knock him almost to half-health.

You try not to show your surprise and command, “Spirit Shackle!” Guzma grins as Decidueye’s ghostly bonds tether Golisopod to the floor. What’s up with that?

“Swords Dance!”

“Pluck!” The hit knocks Golisopod past half-health – and it still disappears into Guzma’s Pokeball, despite the Spirit Shackle. You try not to groan as he sends out his Ariados and tells it to use Sucker Punch – which, thankfully, doesn’t manage to knock Decidueye out, though he gets close to fainting.

You don’t want to lose Decidueye now – you call him back and toss out Growlithe. “Stun Spore!” Even with the paralysis taking effect a couple times, it only takes two Flamethrowers to bring down the Ariados.

Before you can switch out, Guzma shouts “Razor Shell!” And with that, Growlithe’s out. At least you still have Decidueye, though he’s looking bad. Guzma’s smirking again. “Sucker Pu-”

“Dodge it!” you scream before you can even think about it properly. Decidueye manages to fly up in the air just in time to avoid Golisopod’s claws. “Pluck him again!” The first word’s barely out of your mouth when Decidueye dives and slashes at the bug with his beak.

You run forward and hug Decidueye, burying your face in his feathers to hide how scared you were of losing. When you pull away, you look over to Guzma and see him standing up, tugging at his hair and talking to himself again, berating himself, calling himself stupid. Your heart sinks.

Walking up to him, you reach up, take hold of his wrist and try to pull his hand away from his head. You can’t move him, but you can tell he feels you – he falls quiet, his eyes shut tighter and he curls into himself. You take a good look at his face. He’s pale – which you expected from a vampire – but sickly pale, shades whiter than he was in the garden. His features look sunken in. He’s shaking now himself, from anger or something else, you don’t know.

“Just go,” he says finally.

“You really need blood, don’t you?” He opens his eyes, staring at you. His irises are a dull, smoky grey, not the bright silver that’s stuck in your memories.

“I’m not making you do that.” He finally pulls his hands down. “I shouldn’t have said it in the first place.”

“You’re not making me.” You return Decidueye to his ball. “You need it.”

All he says is, “Why?”

You take a minute to think about it yourself. “You’ve been nice to me and I don’t get why. I’d feel bad just stomping you and leaving.” You don’t say it, but actually seeing him agree to the battle and dropping the issue immediately left a good impression.

He tries to smirk, but he’s lost his edge. “You really like me, huh?”

It takes a pause for you to come up with what to say. You don’t want to lie or bruise his ego, but you don’t want to make him too hopeful. “I’m… attracted to you. That’s not why I’m doing this.”

“Okay.” He jerks his head back toward his room. “In there.” You follow him back inside. This time you actually see what’s in here; a bed to the left, a bookcase lined with bottles behind it, and a chest overflowing with Z-crystals on the right. You set your purse down on the bed and hesitantly take off the necklace and the cuff, setting them inside it – you don’t want to accidentally move and burn him.

Guzma sets his hand on your shoulder when you turn back to him, grip much lighter this time. He threads threads the fingers of his other hand through your hair and gently angles your head to the side, baring your throat. You shut your eyes, feeling yourself tremble as he starts to lower his head. “You don’t have to do this,” he says.

“Do it.” You start to brace yourself for the pain, but you’ve barely stiffened when his teeth tear into the skin where your shoulder meets your neck. You flinch and cry out – it’s horrific. At first.

After the first second, it still hurts, but not as badly. It throbs, pulses in time with your heartbeat, and as it does, a second feeling joins it, like electric sparks shooting bright-hot from the spot where he’s biting through your body. It feels so good, given a strange edge by the pain that makes it even better. You faintly feel yourself go limp before you lose touch with your physical self, drowning in the waves of the pulsating pleasure.

When you come back to yourself and things come back into focus, he’s holding you, arm wrapped around your back, fingers still in your hair, cupping your head. His eyes are bright silver as he looks at you, almost glowing; his cheeks are stained pink, and the color looks fantastic on him.

“You okay?” he asks softly.

You struggle for words. “Y-you d-didn’t – didn’t tell me it felt good.”

He smiles. “You didn’t tell me you tasted so good.” He leans in. You press your lips against his.

It feels so good, so right. You manage to lift your hands and run your fingers through his hair, though they feel heavy. He holds you closer, pressing your body against his.

Something niggles at the back of your mind, but your brain is foggy and you’re enjoying this too much to want to concentrate on anything else. For a moment, you lose yourself in him completely. Then the thought that’s been bothering you slams into the front of your mind – _Plumeria._

You go rigid, eyes shooting open. He immediately pulls away, giving you a questioning look. It’s still hard to get your brain and your mouth to connect. “I – I shouldn’t – we can’t – P-Plumeria –”

He chuckles. “What? She won’t care.”

“Y-yeah, she will, I –” You try to push yourself off his chest. Why do you feel so weak and heavy?

“Trust me. She won’t care.” His voice sounds far away. The look on his face changes. He says something, but you can’t quite hear it. You feel yourself start to fall backwards against his arm as everything goes dark.

 

When you wake up, it takes a while to figure out what’s going on, where you are. First you figure out you’re lying down. You open your eyes and stare at an unfamiliar ceiling. You’re warm and it’s hard to move your arms, partly because something’s covering them and partly because they feel so weighed down. There’s something heavy on your arm and lying next to you. You manage to angle your head down – Guzma’s pulled his hoodie over you, and he’s curled up on his side beside you, his head resting on your shoulder. He looks like he’s fallen asleep, but when you start moving, he snaps his head up and looks at you. “How do you feel?”

Your mouth still doesn’t feel like it’s working quite right. “Whaweryadoin’?” He looks confused, and worried. You try again. “W-what – what were you doing?”

“Feeling your heart beat.” You’re not quite sure what to think of that – your head feels floaty and light while the rest of you feels so heavy. “Did you eat today?”

It’s hard to remember. You sit up a little, managing somehow to lift your arm and rub your hand over your face. “Some granola bars?”

He groans. “I tasted it. Should’ve thought about it more.” He gets off the bed. You watch him walk over to his chair and grab a few packets off it, ripping them open as he comes back to the bed. He hands them to you.

You stare at them. “Cookies?”

“Just eat.”

Popping one halfway in your mouth, you reach over for your purse – you haven’t checked your Dex since before you met Nanu. You stop chewing when you notice things in it have been shuffled around. You swallow thickly and glare up at Guzma. “What the hell were you doing in my purse?”

“Making sure you weren’t diabetic.” Before you can tell him off, he says, “Look, I’ve gotta go. Stay here as long as you want. The Yungoos is in my bathroom.” He takes his hoodie back and slings it on before he’s enveloped in darkness. When you blink, he’s gone.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should just start apologizing for every chapter but I promise, I won't annoy you with that - just know this isn't my best work and I'm sorry. I just want to keep this moving past the game events.

Once your head starts feeling normal again and you can walk straight, you heal up your Pokémon, take the angry Yungoos and head back to Nanu’s police station in the dark – it’s night now. The lights are off, but when you try the door, it’s open. You stop long enough to change into another set of your own clothes, which is made difficult by trying to keep the Yungoos from fighting with all the Meowths, before you call a Charizard and head back to Aether House.

The only person in the waiting room is Nanu. The little kids are probably in bed. Not knowing what else to do, you set the Yungoos down and let it scamper away – it can find its way to them. “What’s up?”

He walks up to you, staring at your neck. “You let him bite you?”

You cover where he bit with your hand, feeling your face heat up. “It’s a long story.”

Nanu stares at you, through you. You have the feeling he knows exactly what happened – given what Guzma said, he’s definitely reading your thoughts. “You get Acerola’s text?”

“Huh?” You pull out your Dex and look at it. Everything looks normal, no new message indicator – you open up your texts. There’s a new one on top from an unknown number - you haven’t seen it before, but it’s been opened. You look at it – it’s a frantic disjointed message saying Lillie’s – You look up in shock. “Lillie’s been kidnapped?!”

“By Team Skull. Plumeria stopped by after you left.”

You feel your insides go cold. This was why Guzma was in your purse, that lying – you can’t let your anger get hold of you right now. “Where was Hau?”

“Here. Couldn’t stop her. Vampire, remember?” The sarcasm on that last word makes you want to punch him in the nose – calm down, calm down… “That blond kid that hangs around Team Skull came in today, grabbed Hau, and left to go after them.”

“Where?”

“Aether Paradise.”

“What?!”

“If I knew, I’d tell you.”

You glare at him. “Why didn’t you go with them?”

“There are legal problems if I get involved, as Ula’Ula’s kahuna and a police officer. I don’t have a warrant or a good reason for one – who’d believe Team Skull and Aether are working together?” He sighs. “And I don’t want to find out how Aether’s got two vampires under their thumb. Or let them get a hold of me, if they could.”

“But you let two kids go after them.”

 “They’re children. I don’t trust Aether as far as I can throw them, but they’re going to do as much as possible to make sure they don’t get implicated in this, so they don’t ruin their reputation. So they probably won’t kill them. If it’s a matter of Pokémon battles, those two can probably handle it.”

“Probably.” You turn and storm out the door.

Nanu follows. “Do you even know where you’re going?”

“All I need is a Charizard.”

“I’ve been there once. The place is a labyrinth.”

“I can call Hau.”

“They can jam Pokéballs, you think they can’t jam communications?”

“I’ll figure it out!” you shout as you jab your ride pager.

He puts his hand on your shoulder. You pull away; he doesn’t try to hold you. “I get that you’re taking it personally,” he says. “Team Skull went out of their way to get you distracted because they know you’re strong, and you’re willing to fight them.” You open your mouth; he continues, talking over your protests. “And you’ve got whatever it is you see in those two going on, and that’s not helping. You really think you’re going to be much help if they’re at Aether?”

You can feel your eyes tearing up as you turn back to him. “It’s my fault Lillie got kidnapped. I’ve gotta help.” You suck in a deep breath.  “And whatever I had going with them – it’s over now.”

“Your emotions aren’t going to get in the way?”

“No.”

It looks like he doesn’t believe you, but he just shakes his head. “I couldn’t stop you unless I tied you down anyways. Be careful.”

The Charizard lands. You start to get onto it when you turn to him. “Th-thanks.”

“Hm?” He’s already started to walk away.

“For protecting my head.”

“For what little help it did,” he says, rolling his eyes. “I can’t do it this time. You’ll be too far away. You’re on your own, kid.”

“Right.” You hop up onto the Charizard as he leaves.

 

You’re pretty sure you’re going to go deaf from the wind roaring past your ears by the time the white artificial island comes in sight – this Charizard listened when you said “as fast as possible.” The moon’s high in the sky when the Charizard starts to circle the place, looking for somewhere to land.

There’s a house behind the building that houses what must be the part of Aether you were allowed to visit weeks ago. As the Charizard gets closer and closer, you see two tiny dots of figures emerge from the back of the Aether building, heading toward the house. You tell the Charizard to head there.

The Pokémon pulls up short of landing on the bridge the two – Gladion and Hau – are crossing, feeling unsafe to land on the tiny strip. You hover next to them, trying to regain your hearing as they shout at you. “What?!”

“Go to the house!” You finally make out Gladion’s voice.

“Oh no,” Hau says, looking ahead. “Not more battles!”

You and Gladion look where he is – there are Team Skull grunts lining the bridge, and Guzma’s just come out of the house. Your blood runs cold and the spot where he bit you throbs painfully under your necklace. “Get Guzma!” Gladion says, grabbing a Pokéball as he charges toward the first grunt.

“I will fu- I’m gonna kill him!” you shout back, urging the Charizard forward.

The poor dragon dumps you in front of the house just before it collapses, exhausted. You leave a handful of Pokebeans next to it before you run for the house.

Guzma grins at you as you charge up to him. For a moment you are a creature of pure rage, ready to slam into him and destroy him with every fiber of your being. Something stops you – maybe it’s the last shred of dignity and decency left in you, or the way the moonlight shines in his eyes, or the wave of nausea and fear that passes through you when you get within ten feet of him. Either way, you halt in front of him, breathing hard, glaring daggers at him.

“C’mon,” he says, “hit me.”

You cock your fist back. He flinches slightly, though his eyes never leave yours. But you can’t do it – that wave of nausea picks up. Instead you point in his face and scream, “Fuck you!”

“We’ve already been over this.” He won’t stop with that stupid smirk on his face – it gets even bigger. Your desire to wipe it off him rises. “Got anything new to say?”

“Get out of my way.”

“Okay, that is new, good one.”

You grab his shoulder and try to shove him aside. It’s like trying to push a mountain. “Come on,” he says again, “ _hit me._ ”

Growling, you try to move around him. He catches you with his arm and pushes you back. You pull a Pokéball out of your pocket. “You want me to trash you again? Because I will.”

“You beat me with dumb luck,” he says, “and I promise it won’t happen again.” He pulls out one of his Ultra Balls and tosses it up in the air.

Taking a deep breath, you try to calm down a little. “I beat you, and then I gave my blood to you because of how shitty a place you were in.” He loses the smirk. “So you just fucking used me and –”

“It’s not like that,” he snarls.

“Then what _is_ it like?”

He stares down at you. “I was hoping you’d be too weak to come here,” he finally says.

“So that’s your excuse?” you shout. “You took advantage of me just so you could –”

He steps aside. “Go.” You blink. “Just go!” He stares off into the distance, folding his arms over his chest, hunching over and managing to somehow look small. A pang of pity rolls through you, but you crush it and run up to the house.

The door is locked. You turn and start to scream – until you see Gladion and Hau come up the walkway. “You have a key?”

Gladion runs past you and unbolts the door. The three of you run inside. “Through here!” Gladion leads you through the main door and into what appears to be a bedroom. There’s what looks like a teleporter in the back of the room. Gladion dashes into it without hesitating. You follow.

In the room the teleporter takes you to, Gladion is confronting Lusamine, Lillie standing to the side and watching, nervous. “You can’t do this, Mother!” Gladion shouts.

“She’s your mom?” you ask as you dash to Gladion’s side.

He ignores you and Hau, who’s just entered himself, as Lillie speaks. “You can’t kill Nebby, Mother! You can’t!”

Lusamine glares at them. “Neither of you are worthy of being my children after what you’ve done. How dare you call me that?”

“Please!” Lillie begs.

You notice Lusamine is holding the handle to a small, metal box – Nebby must be inside. She holds it up. “Just the gases we retained from our experiments were enough to open a wormhole in Aether Paradise,” she says with an evil smile. “Imagine what I can do with the real thing.”

“No!” Lillie and Gladion shout at the same time – but they’re too late.

Lusamine presses a button on the box. “Release your power!” she calls. A swirl of blue and purple light streams up from the cage – you suddenly feel a violent buzzing in your head as it grows larger and larger. “Let the beasts into Alola!”

The room shakes as the light turns into an Ultra Wormhole. The static in your head explodes – you fall to your knees trying to keep yourself from passing out for the second time tonight. It slowly but steadily fades to a bearable level – when you’re able to look up, you can see the jellyfish-like being that came through the previous Wormhole in the room with the five of you.

Hau shakes your shoulder. “Are you okay?”

You get back to your feet. “I’m fine.”

“The experiment worked, Madame Prez?” a familiar voice from behind you asks. You turn to see Guzma walk in, eyes only for Lusamine.

“Wonderfully,” she replies, dropping the box Nebby was in.

Gladion speaks up. “I’ll take on the beast – Type: Null was made to be a beast killer. Hau, take on Guzma.”  He looks at you. “Can you distract my mother?”

“I’ll do better than that,” you say, angry, as you get out your Pokéballs.

The battles are relatively short, considering how powerful Lusamine’s Pokemon are – it’s obvious she and Guzma are distracted. You feel another uptick in the buzzing in your head as Type: Null steps back from the battered jellyfish. You rub your temples as the jellyfish starts to disappear back into the wormhole. “No!” Lusamine shouts. “My beast! I can’t let you escape!” As it disappears, she runs after it – and disappears, too.

You feel a hand on your shoulder – Guzma tries to say something to you, but you can’t hear him through the static. He shakes his head, then turns and runs into the wormhole as it closes. The buzzing fades completely.

Lillie runs up to the box Lusamine was holding. “Nebby?” she sobs, gently rolling it so that air vents on it are pointing up. Out of it pops an oblong disc – the center is black, a face like Nebby’s with closed eyes, surrounded by purple and blue, with gold edges. Lillie holds it to her chest.

Hau turns to you. “Seriously, are you okay? Was it that staticky thing again?”

“I told you, I’m fine.” You will not think about Guzma. You will not. You try to kick him as far from your mind as possible as you head to Lillie. “Is he okay?”

“It doesn’t feel like him,” she says, pulling it away and looking at it.

Gladion voices what you’re thinking. “What do we do now?”


	7. Chapter 7

You end up staying at Aether overnight – only Lillie’s willing to stay in the empty house, so Wicke ends up finding you bunks among the regular workers’ dormitories. In the morning, you meet with Gladion and Hau outside the house. They fill you in on everything they discovered about the place while they were trying to get to Lusamine yesterday – it’s astonishing how many unethical experiments the organization’s been doing under everyone’s noses. And so many of those were helped along by partnering secretly with Team Skull…

“So what should we do now?” You finally ask when they’re finished telling you everything.

Before either of them can answer, the door to the house opens and Lillie steps outside. She’s changed her outfit entirely – it’s still all white, but her clothes are more practical for doing a lot of walking. She’s dropped the hat and tied her hair up into a high ponytail. She’s even changed out the duffel bag for a smaller pink backpack.

She walks up to the three of you, looking a little nervous. “There’s so much I have to do – to save Mother, to help Nebby…”

Gladion says, “Wait just a moment.” He disappears into the house and comes back out with a strange blue flute. “This was among Mother’s collection,” he says, handing it to Lillie. “The Moon Flute. Find the Sun Flute and you may be able to summon the legendary Pokémon of these islands – if anything can help, it should.” Lillie nods and puts it away.

“How exactly do you summon the Pokémon?” you ask.

Hau smiles. “You go to the Altar of the Sunne on Poni Island! That’s what the legends say, anyways. Play the Sun Flute and the Moon Flute and the legendary Pokémon will come to your aid.”

Lillie turns to you. “I hate to ask, after everything else you’ve done for us,” she starts, “but could you please help me find the Sun Flute and get to the altar? I have my repels to keep wild Pokémon away, but I don’t know what else we might face…”

“Of course.” There’s nothing you’d rather be doing.

“It’ll probably be dangerous,” she warns.

You want to laugh. “We can handle it, I think.”

Gladion nods. “So you have a plan – good. I’ll stay here to help clean this place up and monitor what’s going on. From Miss Wicke’s reports this morning, the islands seem to be in an uproar over the appearance of multiple Ultra Beasts.”

“You mean Lusamine really was able to open more than just that one portal yesterday?” you ask.

“Apparently so.” Gladion sighs. “We’ll watch from here, and engage if we have to. It looks like the beasts have held off from attacking towns, at least.”

“What about you, Hau?” Lillie asks. “What will you do?”

Hau thinks about it for a moment. “I need to get stronger. I can’t always have you guys swooping in to help me if I’m gonna be a kahuna one day!” He puts his hands behind his head. “I haven’t even faced the Ula’Ula kahuna’s grand trial yet. I’ve still got a ways to go.”

“I haven’t gotten to, either,” you say, wondering who the kahuna even is – they didn’t introduce themselves the way Olivia and Hala did.

“Do you want to go back and face them?” Lillie ask.

You shake your head. “That can wait. I don’t even know who or where they are. What you’re doing is more important.”

 

Gladion gets an Aether ferry to take the two of you to Poni Island after he and Lillie have a quick heart-to-heart conversation. You land at a large pier with several docks, home to several boats shaped like different Water-type Pokémon. “Where should we start looking?” you ask as you make your way towards land.

“The kahuna would probably know where something like the Sun Flute is,” Lillie says. “Let’s look for them.”

An older man stops the two of you. “You’re looking for the kahuna?” Lillie nods. “You’re probably best off going to little Hapu’s house,” he tells you. “Her house is the only one still standing on the island, it’s easy to find.”

“She lives here? I didn’t know that. Thank you, sir!” Lillie takes your hand and leads you off onto the land, making her way with you through the Pokémon- and trainer-filled Poni Wilds.

Eventually you come upon the house the man was talking about – Hapu’s standing outside with her Mudsdale, talking to an elderly lady. She smiles and waves when she notices the two of you walking up. “Fancy seeing you here!”

“Alola!” Lillie says warmly. “How have you been?”

“We’ve been doing alright,” Hapu says, patting her Mudsdale’s flank. “This is my grandmother.”

After greetings and small talk, Hapu asks, “So what brings you here?”

Lillie says, “We’re looking for the Sun Flute. I thought the kahuna might know, and a man in the village told us to ask you about it.”

Hapu thinks. “Well, we don’t have a kahuna here.”

“You don’t?” you ask, confused.

“Not right now, anyway,” Hapu says. “But… I think I can still help you. Let’s head to the Ruins of Hope.”

As she mounts up on her Mudsdale, Hapu’s grandmother says, “It’s wonderful to see Hapu making friends.” She motions to you. “Let me see your ride pager. You may need some help getting through the ruins.” When she gives it back to you, you see that you now have access to a Machamp.

The rest of the day is a wild ride – Hapu is named the new kahuna by Tapu Fini at the Ruins of Hope, the two of you battle, and then she sends you back to the docks to find a ride to Exeggutor Island, where the Sun Flute is rumored to be hidden. When you find it and head back to Poni, it’s early evening – Hapu and her grandmother let you and Lillie stay for the night so you can start your journey to the Altar of the Sunne in the morning.

You find it hard to sleep again tonight. Everything that happened with Guzma still stings – you can’t believe you listened to him, that you thought he might care about you. And then there’s Plumeria and the feelings to deal with there… She probably doesn’t care about you either, much as it hurts to think about it. You wish you could stomp on your feelings until they’re too small to make you ache.

After a while, you realize sleep’s just not going to come. You sigh and get up, careful not to wake Lillie as you slip on a sweatshirt, put on your shoes and walk outside. At least the air out here is always fresh, the tang of saltwater clear. You walk amongst the ruins of houses and wonder what happened here that left only Hapu’s house standing. Did Fini have an outburst the way Bulu did at Tapu Village? Living under the auspices of such powerful Pokémon seems a little frightening sometimes.

You’re avoiding the tall grass, but all the same, a Zubat comes flying at you. You watch it, wondering where it came from – you haven’t seen any on the island before now. Then it starts hovering closer to the ground – then darkness swallows it. You stare; the same thing happened with Guzma teleported out of the Team Skull mansion. When the shreds of almost material darkness disappear, Plumeria stands in front of you. You feel a wave of worry and attraction fall over you and shake your head, trying to get it to go away – it must be whatever pheromone thing Guzma was talking about. “You goin’ after G?” she asks.

“You kidnapped Lillie.”

“I didn’t want to do it.”

“You still did.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “And I’m sorry I did it. If I’d known what that bitch was planning on doing, or that she was getting Guzma all tangled up in it, I would have said no.”

“So you thought kidnapping was totally fine until Guzma disappeared.”

“No.” She rubs her temple. “The way Lusamine explained it, it wasn’t really kidnapping. Her daughter had run away from her and needed to be brought back with whatever specimen she stole. I didn’t realize she didn’t give a shit at all about Lillie – if I’d known Gladion was her kid, too…”

“You just listened to her?”

She frowns. “You went to Aether before and met her. You know how sweet she can seem. She had us wrapped around her fingers, G most of all.” She looks into your eyes. “So are you going to get Guzma?”

You don’t want to talk about this. “Have you been following me around?”

“No, I just found out where you were a few hours ago. Had to drag it out of Gladion.”

You tense. “You didn’t hurt him, did you?”

“Of course not! He’s my baby brother!”

“He’s Lillie’s brother.” The words sound harsh as they come out of your mouth, but it’s true – as far as you’re concerned, Plumeria doesn’t have the right to claim him like that.

“I spent the last year helping take care of him and letting him cry on my shoulder. He’s as good as my brother.”

“And he abandoned Lillie to Lusamine when he left.”

Plumeria twitches. “You know how hard it is to deal with a messed-up family? Sometimes self-defense if your only option. If you don’t get that, don’t talk about it.”

You remember your father and reply, “I know how much it hurts when someone you thought loved you leaves you behind.”

“Man, you really fell for him, didn’t you?” You look at her quizzically. “Guzma,” she clarifies.

She knew? Your face gets hot as you answer, “That’s not what I’m talking about. I couldn’t give less of a shit about him.”

“We both know that’s not true.”

This is too confusing. “So you know I had… feelings for him.” You don’t know how to discuss this without feeling and sounding completely awkward.

“Had?”

“You really think I want to like someone who just fucking used me?”

She blinks. “What the fuck did he do?”

One part of you doesn’t want to talk about this, especially not with her. Another part reminds you that you have no one else to talk to about it, and that maybe it would help you get over this. You sigh and explain what happened to Plumeria, managing to keep yourself from stumbling over your words too much and from crying.

It takes a few minutes for her to take in what you’re saying. She pinches the bridge of her nose and huffs. “He can be a total idiot sometimes. Didn’t he realize you’d come after us?”

“What, so you think what he did is okay?”

“Of course not. But – this is all so frustrating. If that stupid bitch hadn’t –”

“You can’t just blame this all on Lusamine.”

She shakes her head. “No. I love him, but G can be so fucking dense.”

You catch her wording. “You love him?”

“Of course I do.”

“As a brother?”

“No. We’re together.”

Everything that’s happened over the last several days, everything you’ve thought about what’s going on – it shatters in your mind and tries to shuffle, reform, make sense out of what she’s saying. “Then why the hell did you kiss me?!” you shout at her. This is so confusing and painful. “Why did he – why did –” You can’t stop yourself now; the tears flood your cheeks. You cover your face with your hands as you sob.

Plumeria pats your shoulder. You knock her hand away. “This is my fault,” she says quietly. “We should have explained to you – we didn’t realize –”

“That I have feelings and a heart and that you were just playing with me?!”

“That’s not what I was doing. I really do like you. He does, too, I promise.”

“You’re a vampire, right?” She nods. “How do I even know you have feelings anymore? How do I know you’re not just trying to toy with me right now?” You can’t keep your voice from rising.

“I promise I’m not –”

“I don’t believe you!” You turn and walk away, trying to stop crying. For a few moments you don’t hear anything but your own wheezing breaths – then there are footsteps. You look up to see Hapu approaching you. Glancing around, you don’t see Plumeria anywhere.

Hapu pats your arm. “I heard you shouting,” she says. “What’s wrong?”

You wipe your face with your arm, dragging your sweatshirt sleeve through the tears and snot, wishing it’d actually leave your face clean. “Just – bad phone call.”

“Is everything okay?”

You take a deep breath. “I’ll – I’ll be fine. It’s not – I just – it’ll be fine.” If you could just stop yourself from feeling things…

“Let me know if you need anything,” Hapu says. “I’m going to go back to the house. Don’t wander too far.”

“Thanks. I think I just need a few minutes to myself.” She pats your arm again before leaving. Once you’ve managed to cry yourself out, you head back as well – you need to try to get some sleep tonight.

 

The next few days are rough, trekking through the Vast Poni Canyon, the path twisting both to the bottom and the top of the cliffsides – at least you have Hapu to guide you. You don’t know Hapu well enough to talk to her about things, and you don’t want to burden Lillie with what’s been going on with you – she’s got enough on her mind with Lusamine – but they can tell you’re not happy. At least it’s easy enough to cover up with fatigue – you’re not sure you’re ever going to sleep all the way through the night again, and combined with how tough the hike is, you’re all left too tired to talk much.

It turns out there’s an island trial here – there’s a stone carving explaining it at the start. Lillie and Hapu hang back as you head into the cavern. A wild Jangmo-o and Hakamo-o attack as you walk through – thankfully, with Mimikyu and his Fairy-type moves at your side, they’re an easy battle. The Totem Kommo-o that appears when you try to take a Dragonium Z is tougher, especially when it calls in another Hakomo-o, but with Mimikyu and Kadabra, you manage to pull through.

Hapu and Lillie come up behind you. “Great job!” Hapu says. “It’s said that this trial was the first ever created. You did well.”

“You’ve faced all seven of Alola’s trials, now, haven’t you?” Lillie asks.

“Yeah, I guess so.” You shrug. “I guess I just need to track down Ula’Ula’s kahuna after this and I’ll be done with the trials.”

Finally you make it to the Altar of the Sunne. You groan as you see the number of steps leading up to it. “We can’t stop now!” Lillie says.

“I’m actually going to stay here,” Hapu says. “This is your battle to face. But I’ll be here if you need me.”

“I’m going to take a few days off and lie in bed and not move after this,” you tell Lillie as you approach the first step.

“I’m sorry,” she says quietly.

You realize you’re being a dick and say, “It’s okay! This is just – it’s been intense. I’m glad we managed to make it here.”

“And soon, hopefully, we’ll be able to face Mother.”

You smile at her. “Let’s go.”

At the top of the steps, there’s a giant stone platform that leads to two more platforms covered in water. They face a wall covered in a massive carving with water flowing down it, providing the water that flows over the platforms – it’s a wonder to look at.

Lillie hands you the Sun Flute. “Hapu told me a little about this place,” she says. She goes to stand on the water-covered platform on the left. “I stand here with the Moon Flute, and you should be over there.” You step onto the platform on the right.

“Uh, I’ve never really been good at music,” you tell her, holding the Sun Flute in your hands.

She smiles. “I’m not either. But we’ll figure it out.” She lifts her flute to her lips. You do the same.

All you do at first is blow into it – the tone from her flute and from yours combine into one strange note. Then a strange power rushes through you – you move your fingers almost involuntarily, playing a few short measures with Lillies of an odd tune. When you can take control of yourself again and pull the flute away, you watch as blue and purple light surges from the water around you up the carving until the whole mountainside is illuminated. The central circular carving breaks and pulls away to reveal a yellow and orange glowing core – a beam of light shoots from it to the massive central platform behind the two of you.

As you turn to watch, you see Lillie struggling – her backpack is wriggling. She manages to get it off her shoulders, but before she can do anything with it, it flies into the center of the beam of light. The little disc that’s all that’s left of Nebby emerges – then the light becomes blinding, forcing you to cover your eyes. When it fades and you can look up again, there’s a massive glowing white lion with yellow plating around its mane standing there, watching the two of you. Its face is black and blue, the same strange cosmic colors that Nebby was.

Lillie slowly walks up to it, awed. “Solgaleo? …Nebby?” It looks down at her, almost nodding. Carefully, Lillie pats it on the head. “I didn’t know you could turn into a Legendary Pokémon!” The beast gives a little purr as she pets it. “Will you take us to Mother?” It wriggles and turns around, laying down. “I think we need to ride on his back,” Lillie says.

“I guess,” you say, climbing on with her.

Once the two of you are safely mounted, the lion stands and roars. Another orange and yellow light appears above you, this time beaming into the bottom of the massive carving. You and Lillie hold on tight as Solgaleo charges into the beam, your ears crackling and buzzing with the familiar static sensations that come from being near an Ultra Wormhole.

When Solgaleo comes to a stop, you find that you don’t hear or feel the static anymore. When you open your eyes, everything is alien – you’re surrounded by smoky black walls of rock with blue, green and purple crystals embedded in them, glowing with enough light to let you see. Lillie asks, “Can you take us to Mother?”

Solgaleo roars again and lays down. The two of you dismount, and Lillie pets its nose again. “Thank you for bringing us here. Please wait so you can take us back.”

The strange cavern you’re in is long, narrow, and winding, the stone of the walls creating strange structures at least twice as tall as you are. It’s hard to know where you’re going, or if you’re even going the right way, but Lillie leads, somehow confident that she knows what to do.

You step into a wider hallway and see someone sitting near the top of one of the structures towards the end of the corridor. As you get closer, you see it’s Guzma. You tense up as he jumps off the platform, coming toward the two of you. Without a word, he steps into your space and hugs you tightly. You can feel him trembling as he holds you. Before you can think better of it, you wrap your arms around his waist. When you realize what you’re doing, you let go and start to step back. He pulls away from you and asks, “What are you doin’ here?”

“I’m here to talk some sense into Mother,” Lillie says.

He turns to her almost as if he didn’t see her at first. “Good luck with that, kid, she’s pretty far gone.” He shivers. “She ran into more of those beasts… She can’t think of anythin’ else. I think she wants to stay here.”

Lillie balls her hands into fists. “I’ve got to try, at least.”

He points behind him. “She’s in there. She’s... Good luck.” Lillie nods and walks past him up the hall.

Before you can follow her, he turns to you. You look him over. It may just be the strange blue light, but he seems even paler than when you met him at the mansion. There are faint red lines over his arms, almost looking like burns. “Why’d you come?” he asks.

“To help Lillie.”

He nods. “Figured.” He rubs his eye, looking tired. “You wanna punch me?”

“What?”

“I deserve it. Hit me.”

“No.” You give him an annoyed look. “You’re an asshole, but no.”

“Just do it.”

“Would you stop?” He blinks. “I kind of fucking hate you, but I’m not going to hit you.”

He leans back against the stone structure behind him. All of his cockiness is completely gone. He looks… defeated. “If you want to just leave me here… I get it.”

“Are you sick?” Can vampires even get sick?

“I dunno. Maybe.” He closes his eyes and tilts his head back. “I ran into one of those… beasts, thought I could take it on. It got into my head.” He gives a hollow laugh. “I think I know what real fear feels like now.”

“That’s…” What are you even supposed to say to that? “Look, let’s go help Lillie, okay?”

He shrugs. “I don’t think I’m gonna be much help. I already tried.”

“Well, fine, just sit here and mope, then.” He barely responds as you walk past him down the strange hall.

“That’s terrible, Mother! You’re terrible!” you hear Lillie say as you enter the room. Lusamine stands in front of her, surrounded by Nihilego.

Lusamine glares at her. “Once you were beautiful to me. When you were little, you listened to everything I said without question. You loved me. Now look at you.” She turns to you. “Thanks to this worthless stranger, you’ve learned to defy your mother! You’ve become so ugly.”

“How can you say that to your own daughter?” you ask. “She’s just trying to help you.”

“Help me? How would ripping me away from my precious Nihilego help me?” Lusamine pulls out a strange Pokéball, a blue ball with gold ridges. “You hateful little trainer! My Nihilego and I will show you how wrong you were to come here!”

“Lillie, get behind me!” you shout as you let out Decidueye, hoping he can defend you.

The two of you stare as Lusamine releases a beast from the ball she’s holding. There’s a blinding flash of light and suddenly the two creatures are one – Lusamine floats in the air, her head and shoulders surrounded by a strange blob shaped like the Nihilego’s head, staining her hair black, and massive tentacles protruding from it. One of the tentacles comes flying toward you. “Decidueye, Leaf Blade!” The attack manages to cut the tentacle off, making the creature in front of you scream in rage and pain. You try to pull back, shielding Lillie behind you, as Decidueye keeps attacking.

Lusamine is too powerful for Decidueye to defeat – soon he’s fainted. Your other Pokémon make valiant attempts to stop her, but soon they’re wiped out too. Soon you’re down to Mimikyu, on his last legs. Lusamine dives down for final attack, but stops when Lillie screams, “Mother! What are you doing?” With the pause, Lillie shouts, “Solgaleo, help us!”

To your surprise, the giant lion leaps over your head and stands in front of you protectively. It shoots a beam of pure light at Lusamine – when you can see again, the Ultra Beast has separated from Lusamine’s body. It flies away, leaving her to fall to the ground. Quickly you put Mimikyu back in his ball.

Lillie runs past you. “Mother!” She kneels down, grabbing her hand.

For a moment, she doesn’t move. Then she says, “Lillie… when did you start… becoming beautiful?” She sits up just enough that she can hug Lillie.

That’s when Guzma runs in. “What the hell happened?!” he asks. “There are those things everywhere!” You and Lillie look up and realize he’s right – tons of the beasts have appeared, surrounding the four of you and Solgaleo.

“Solgaleo, get us out of here, please!” Lillie shouts in fear. You cling to the beast’s leg, hoping it can move you in time. You screw your eyes shut as Guzma grabs your arm – then your head is filled with the buzzing and crackling again.

When the static fades away, the five of you are standing on the platform of the Altar of the Sunne. The sun is setting. Everything looks normal, almost too normal after the strangeness of the Ultra Wormhole. Hapu approaches you on her Mudsdale. “I was worried, with how long you all were gone. Did everything go okay?”

You and Lillie look at each other. “In the end, I think so,” Lillie says.

“So, uh, how do we get down from here?” Guzma asks.

In the end, you take a Charizard down to the Poni Island Pokemon Center, riding with Lillie, while Hapu gives her ride pager to Guzma and lets him take the burden of holding onto Lusamine and keeping her safe during the flight. Hapu has to ride back down the Canyon by herself with her Mudsdale, but she says it’s a good time to look over the area as a kahuna and get a feel for how to do the trials here.

Guzma carries Lusamine into the Pokémon Center, then stands around looking awkward in the lobby as Lillie follows the nurses carrying her into a back room on a stretcher. You’ve just finished arranging rooms for the night for you and Lillie when he comes over and asks, “Can we talk? Outside?”

“About what?”

“I just – we need to talk.” Sighing, you follow him outside. He walks you to the Poni Wilds before he stops and turns to you. He takes a while to say anything, emotions conflicting on his face. You cross your arms over your chest, staring at him, waiting. Finally, he says, “I’m… I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

He scratches the back of his neck. “I shoulda – I should’ve… I know we were on different sides of things. But I just wanted you so bad…”

“Why didn’t you tell me about you and Plumeria?”

He looks away. “I’m an asshole, okay? I shoulda thought about it more. Besides, it’s not like that matters much –”

“Yeah, actually, it really does.” You glare at him.

“I mean it doesn’t really matter now that, y’know, you hate my guts.” He looks down at the ground. “I don’t blame ya for that.” He scuffs his foot in the dirt. “I… should probably go.”

He looks so downtrodden. You kind of feel bad for him. “Plumeria’s really worried about you,” you tell him.

He blinks. “She is?”

“Of course she is. She loves you.” You try to keep the bitterness out of your voice as you say it.

He makes himself look into your eyes. “I’m sorry,” he says again. He hands you Hapu’s ride pager - then he’s surrounded by darkness – and then gone.

When you walk back into the Pokémon Center, Lillie says, “Are you alright?”

You try to smile at her. “Just… really tired. Let’s get some sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for taking so long to post a new chapter - this one was difficult to write. And sorry that it's kind of a downer in some ways. I promise, this is not the end, this is not where the relationship stands!


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, after confirming that Lusamine’s okay and that Lillie’s going to stay with her for now, you head back to Ula’Ula, landing in Malie City. Looking at Malie Garden makes you ache a little on sight. You find a bench to sit on in the garden and text Professor Kukui, not knowing who else to ask. _Who’s the kahuna of Ula’Ula?_

It takes a while for him to answer. You spend the time exploring the garden, trying to replace your memories of meeting Guzma with scenes of the park at peace.

Finally Kukui gets back to you. _The kahuna is a man named Nanu – it’s probably easiest to contact him through Acerola. Back to doing your trials?_

You stare at your Dex in disbelief. _Are you serious?_

_Have you met him? I know he doesn’t quite seem the type, but he’s a kahuna through and through! Come up to Mount Lanakila when you finish your battle with him, the League’s ready to open!_

You sigh and get out your ride pager. The Charizard is reluctant to land in the rain when you get to Po Town, and takes off immediately to escape the downpour. You glare at the town gates before you turn back and head for the police station.

You don’t even have to knock on the door – Nanu opens it as you approach. He beckons you inside, out of the rain. When you come in, he flicks on the lights and asks, “What happened with Aether?”

It takes a while to explain the whole story. It still hurts a little when you talk about Guzma – it’s so frustrating that you feel so hurt over what little happened between the three of you. You wish the feelings would just go away and die.

Nanu’s quiet for a few moments after you finish. You wonder what he’s thinking – his expression barely moves. When he finally speaks, he says, “You’ve been through a lot since coming here.”

You shrug. “I guess.”

“Guzma’s kind of a bonehead, but his heart’s in the right place.”

That takes you by surprise. “If he even has a heart,” you mutter to yourself as you pet the Meowth that’s decided to make itself comfy in your lap.

“Being a vampire doesn’t make you a heartless monster.” Nanu grins. “Trust me, it’d be a _lot_ easier if we were.”

“Can we not talk about this?”

Nanu gets to his feet, upsetting the Meowths around him. “You’re here to challenge the kahuna, right?”

You have to ask, “How exactly did you end up a kahuna, anyways? That seems like it would work out weird.”

Nanu sighs. “If I had any idea what the Tapu think when they do this stuff, I’d be… well, crazy, probably.”

“Do the other kahunas know?” You look down at your cuff. “I guess Olivia does…”

“I told them so they’re prepared to deal with me being around a while.” Nanu fishes his Pokéballs from his pockets. “Hopefully Bulu will pick someone else soon and let me be, but we’ll just have to see.” He gestures for you to get up. “Let’s go out back. I don’t feel like wrecking my place today.”

“Isn’t that dangerous for you?”

“Eh, a Pokémon battle shouldn’t take too long. This is supposed to be a test, not me going all out on you.” He smirks. “Not that I’m gonna make it easy for you.”

“Wouldn’t expect you to.” You follow him back out the front door and behind the police station – there’s an area cleared out in the back. Nanu tosses out a Persian. You let out Hariyama.

Nanu’s right – the battle doesn’t take long. When it’s over, Nanu flips you a new Z-Crystal. “What are you going to do now?” he asks.

“Kukui wants me to come see the League.”

You can’t hold back a giggle when he rolls his eyes. “We’ll see how that goes.”

“You think it’s not going to last?”

“I think it’ll take a while to get it settled into people’s minds and become normal.” Nanu starts to walk back to the front of the police station. “The islands are a little too comfortable with traditions to accept it quickly, but it should be fine once people get over the fact that it’s new.”

When you get to the front of the police station, you see Guzma standing in front of Nanu’s door, waiting on him. He tries to say hi to you. You step out into the road and call a Charizard, trying not to look at him. You don’t even say goodbye to Nanu.

Once you’re in Tapu Village, you take a few deep breaths and try to relax a little. You just finished your island trials. Isn’t this supposed to be a happy moment? You head to the Pokémon Center and heal up your team before heading to the lift up the mountain.

The way to the Pokémon League is more challenging than Kukui made it sound – instead of taking you directly to the League, the lift leaves you at a lower point on the mountain, making you walk through a cave to get there – it reminds you of the Victory Road in Unova. There’s another Pokémon Center once you leave the cave – you happily walk in and get yourself a cup of Tapu Cocoa. You weren’t expecting the harsh temperature drop once you got up here.

Kukui greets you when you step into the official building for the Pokémon League. “Alola! How’d your last grand trial go?”

“Fine.” You glance around at the walkways leading to four doors in front of you. “This is fancy.”

He smiles. “You like it?”

“It’s nice. And warm.”

Kukui laughs. “This is about the coldest it’s ever gonna get in Alola. You can handle it.”

“You’re making me cold just looking at you. Put on a shirt!”

“Nope.” He gestures to the rooms. “Take your pick, decide who you want to challenge first!”

The battles are hard, but you already know Hala’s and Olivia’s styles of fighting, and you predicted Acerola being a Ghost-type user after her trial. The real wrench, the last big battle, is Kahili; you’ve never heard of her before, but she’s a tough trainer just like the rest. It gets slightly easier when you realize she’s a Flying-type specialist.

When you take the teleporter into the main hall after beating Kahili, Kukui’s gone. The platform in the center of the room starts to glow; it must be another teleport. You stop to heal up your Pokémon before you step onto it.

The room you step into has an amazing few of the scenery below. You look around, amazed, before you turn to the two other people in the room. Hau’s talking with Kukui, as excited as ever. He sees you and runs over, giving you a tight hug. “How’d everything go?” he asks.

“We got Lusamine back. She’s pretty sick - Lillie’s staying with her on Poni Island right now.” You look at him. “So are you the Champion now?”

“Yep!” His smile is so wide it hurts. “You wanna challenge me?”

“Seems like the right thing to do, since I went to all the work of beating the Elite Four.”

Kukui says, “Man, the first Champ already has a new challenger! I can’t wait to see how this goes down.”

It’s a drawn-out battle – Hau took his training seriously while you were away. In the end, he wins, though you’re both down to your last Pokémon. You shake his hand at the end and give him another hug; he’s put so much work into this, he deserves it. “I guess I was right about you being Champion material!” Kukui says as he walks with you to the teleporter.

“I just lost,” you point out.

“But you gave Hau a run for his money. Good job. You’re a fantastic trainer.” You feel your face flushing as the teleporter takes you back to the main chamber of the building. He pats your shoulder. “We’re having a celebration for Hau in Iki Town tomorrow night. Think you can make it?”

You smile. “You bet.”

 

The party is surprisingly big – all the trial captains and kahunas come, several friends you’ve made along the way – even Lillie manages to tear herself away from her mother long enough to come. It’s close enough to sunset that Nanu feels comfortable sticking around for a while. He eventually approaches you. “Have you seen Guzma around?”

You tense. This party’s supposed to be fun. “No. Why?”

“He disbanded Team Skull and disappeared on me. It’s always a little worrying when he does that.”

“What are you, his dad?”

“In a sense.” You stare at him; you were kidding. “I made him a vampire,” he clarifies.

“Why?”

“I found him ripped apart and dying, remembered seeing him as a kid. Didn’t think it was fair for a young guy to go out like that.” Before you can say anything, he says, “You’d have to ask him how he ended up like that. Won’t talk about it at all with me.”

“Ripped apart?”

“Looked like a wild Pokémon’d gotten to him before I did. Had to get his Golisopod to stop hovering over his body before I could do anything.” He snaps his head to the side, suddenly, looking off into the forest. “Think I need to go. Tell people I had some business to take care of.” He disappears into the trees. You’re left unsettled, finding it difficult to enjoy the celebration after.

 

It feels good to sleep in your own bed – camping around Alola was interesting but it’s hard to beat a new mattress. You’re still having trouble sleeping, but at least you can just roll over and lay in bed until late in the morning if you feel like it.

Today, though, you don’t get to do that – there’s some frantic knocking at your front door. You hurriedly throw on some clothes and open the door. Hau runs in and shouts, “C’mon, we have to hurry!” He grabs your arm and starts dragging you out.

You shake him off long enough to grab your bag and lock your door. “What’s up?”

“It’s – it’s Lillie!” He grabs your arm again. “We have to get to the docks before the boat leaves!”

Thanks to Hau, you at least get to say goodbye to Lillie before she heads off to Kanto with Lusamine. You’re sad to see her go. She’s only eleven – she shouldn’t be burdened with taking care of her mother like this. But it’s her choice to go. You wish her well and promise along with Hau to write.

Once you get back home, you kind of want to crawl back into bed, but you’re already dressed. You settle for reading on the couch, Arcanine trying her best to curl up on the other end on top of your feet, in a good position for a nap should you feel one coming on.

You wake with a start when a loud thump comes from your porch. Arcanine follows you as you disorientedly throw yourself off the couch.

You blink when you open the front door – somebody’s lying across the porch like they just tripped over the last step up. You recognize the hoodie, even though there’s a big red X over the Team Skull logo, and the white hair poking out from under the sweater’s hood. Today’s been too weird. “What the _fuck?_ ” you ask.

He does his best to lift his head; it’s clearly a struggle for him. Half his face is covered with his goofy sunglasses, flicked down over his eyes for once and half hanging off his face, scuffed from running into the porch boards. The parts of his face that aren’t protected by the glasses are covered in ugly blisters and burns, peeling skin everywhere. You look over him again; his arms look worse than his face. “Lemme lay here for a while?” he asks faintly.

You bend down and hook your arms under his chest, trying to lift him. “Holy fuck, how much do you weigh?”

“Just leave me here.”

“I don’t feel like having someone die on my fucking porch, thanks.”

He manages to get his feet under him and leans on you to get into your house, where you’re greeted by Arcanine barking at the intruder. “Move,” you tell her. She keeps barking – she recognizes the trainer she’s fought against a few times now, and clearly she’s not a fan. (You don’t blame her.) “Move, dammit, you stupid –” You end up having to put her back into her Pokéball to get her to stop, Guzma’s weight crushing you the whole time.

Finally you manage to dump him on the couch before you sink back into your armchair, thoroughly winded. When you get your breath back, you ask, “What the hell are you doing here?”

He flicks his glasses up over his forehead, groaning as he moves. The blisters aren’t as bad where the glasses were covering him, but they’re still there. “Too few trees over here. Too much sun.”

“Please say you weren’t stalking my house.”

“No – didn’t know you lived here ‘til last night.” Every time he moves, it results in grunts of pain, but he’s still trying to reposition himself to be more comfortable. “Was trying to avoid Nanu and – you already know I’m a fucking idiot. Got caught on the wrong side of the island when the sun came up.”

“Couldn’t you just teleport away?”

“Not in sunlight.” He closes his eyes and concentrates for a minute, then stops. “If I were fine, I could do it in a few minutes out of the sun, but – not like this.”

Then he should’ve been able to teleport when he noticed the sun coming up… You stare at him. “You weren’t trying to kill yourself, were you?”

At first he looks shocked – then guilty. “I was kind of hoping it’d just happen when I stayed out too long,” he mutters. “I didn’t know about – about this.”

If your emotions weren’t confusing before, they sure are now. You still hate – well maybe hate is a strong word – you still don’t like him, but you can’t help feeling bad for him, especially after saying something like that. “Why the hell were you trying to do that?”

“Because I’m a stupid fuck-up and everyone hates me.”

You rub your eyes. “Oh, come on. What about Plumeria?”

“Won’t talk to me unless I get Team Skull back together.”

“Why’d you stop, anyway?”

He sighs. “We weren’t _doin’_ anything. No one gave a shit until we teamed up with Aether, and then I was just Lusamine’s bitch.” He pauses. “And now that Aether’s fucked, we’re back to not havin’ money. But everyone’s pissed because I destroyed the fam.”

“Except Nanu?” He winces as he turns his head to look at you. “He was looking for you last night. You said you were avoiding him.”

“He thinks he can help.” Guzma rolls his eyes. “Like he can make up for saving me in the first place.”

“Oh my god, stop.” He glares at you. “I can only handle so much self-pity before I start wanting to punch you.”

“Then just fuckin’ do it.”

You groan. “What _happened_ to you?”

“What?”

“You were so – so fucking cocky when I met you! Now you’re just being a miserable fuck.”

He grips the couch cushions so hard you’re worried he might tear them. “Yeah, well that was before everything I was doing went to fucking hell!” He’s shaking. “When I thought I was actually worth something!” He chokes back a sob.

Something is seriously wrong. You move to sit next to him, placing your hand gently on his shoulder, hoping he’s not burned there. He yanks himself away, even though it’s obvious it hurts him to do it. “What happened?” you ask quietly, trying to be more gentle. He looks away. “You started acting like this when we found you in the Ultra Wormhole. What happened?”

He covers his face with one hand, hunching over and curling into himself. For a long time he’s completely silent, unmoving – you’re not even sure he’s breathing. (Then again, he probably doesn’t have to, but it’s disturbing to watch.) When he finally looks up, he’s staring at the wall, not really looking at anything. He takes a deep breath. “Ever have someone finally believe in you for once in your goddamn life, and then grind you into the dirt so hard you might as well have never existed?” He closes his eyes and rubs them. “She said I was the best trainer she’d ever met. I had the potential to become Aether’s kahuna once we caught the Ultra Beasts. Team Skull had vision, just needed resources.” He’s trembling again. “And then we went to the Ultra Wormhole, and she got her beasts, and she told me I was nothing. I wasn’t actually worth anything, except maybe as a tool. I should just go die and get out of her way.”

“Did – did she actually say that?”

“Said she never wanted to see me again. I thought I was stuck there. What else was I supposed to do?”

It’s hard to know what to say to all that. After a while, all you can manage is, “I’m sorry.” There’s another period of silence. “For what it’s worth, you are a great trainer.”

“You don’t have to say shit just to try to –”

“I’m not.” You try patting his shoulder again. “I only won last time because I got lucky. You really know what you’re doing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Okay.” You don’t really know what else to do. When he’s quiet long enough that it’s clear he’s done talking, you take your book and read it sitting next to him, looking up every once in a while at him.

Eventually the sun starts to set. You’re reluctant to leave the room in case you’ll find him gone when you come back, but your stomach won’t stop rumbling.

He’s still there when you’ve finished eating. Once it’s dark outside, he slowly gets to his feet, grunting in pain. You get up with him. “What are you doing?”

“Moonlight might help. ‘Sworked for other things.” He blinks when you wrap your arm around his back. “You don’t have to help me.”

“You could barely walk earlier,” you tell him. He starts to lean on you before you’re even done talking.

It takes several minutes to get outside and down the porch steps. Guzma almost instinctively turns toward the moon, near full tonight. He suddenly winces and grunts in pain. You try to catch him as he falls to his knees. “Are you okay?”

He strips off his jacket and shirt, revealing his chest and stomach, also covered in the burns and blisters. “Hurts like shit,” he says through gritted teeth.

“It’s not helping?” It’s almost as if steam is rising off his skin.

“It is – just _hurts_ ,” he says, falling forward and catching himself on his elbows. It’s hard to watch him crouched there, whimpering in pain, but you have no idea what else to do. As you watch, the blisters slowly pop or shrink, the damaged skin sloughs off, and new skin appears where the burns used to be. It’s kind of disgusting, to be honest, but also bizarrely fascinating, watching what appears to be weeks’ worth of healing happen in a span of several minutes.

When Guzma finally gets up, he’s covered in still-peeling skin and pus from the blisters, grass stains on his pant legs and arms. At least it’s clear he has his strength back – he gets on his feet with no problem. He looks at you sheepishly. “You mind if I take a shower?”

“Please,” you tell him, gathering up his shirt and hoodie.

He manages a laugh. “God, is it that bad?” He looks down at himself. “Don’t answer that.”

When he’s done, he looks back to normal, except that his hair is still wet – and you notice for the first time that he’s missing his Team Skull necklace. He’s pale, and there are dark shadows under his eyes. “I’ll stop bugging you,” he says as darkness starts to wrap around him.

“Where are you gonna go?”

You watch as the shadows fall to his feet and sink into the floor, disappearing. “I don’t know,” he admits after thinking for a moment.

It takes you a moment to say it, but it’s pretty clear he has nowhere else to go. “You can stay here if you need to.”

“I’ve already bugged ya enough.”

“What are you gonna do, then?”

He thinks for another few minutes. “You sure?”

“I can’t kick you out and feel good about myself in the morning.” You look up at him. “You need blood?”

“Whoa, you don’t have to –”

“You need blood.” You step closer to him. “I’m being selfish,” you admit. “It… felt really good.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know.”

He locks eyes with you for a moment before he bends down, wrapping one arm around your waist. His other hand tilts your head to the side, exposing your neck. You barely have time to tense in anticipation before he bites you.

The pain is so awful to start with, but the pleasure is so, so good. When you come back to yourself, you realize you’re letting your head rest on his chest and step back with a start. He lets go of you and shrinks back, hesitantly asking, “You okay?”

“Y-yeah.” You swallow. “Just – ready for bed, I think.” You bite your nail as you realize night’s his main time to be active – is he going to leave and come back? Just sit here all night? “Um, you want to pick out something to read?”

He snorts. “I don’t really read.”

“What about comics?”

It takes him a moment to answer. “Comics are alright.”  You let him into your room and press a few books into his hands. He looks over them as you get on your laptop and set up a second account on it. He grins when you close it and hand it over to him. “Don’t want me seeing what porn you look at?”

“Be smart if you’re gonna look up porn,” you tell him in annoyance.

“Got it.” He stands there for a moment, staring at you. “Um. Thanks.”

You stand there watching each other for an awkward moment, unsure what to say. He starts to say something else before he turns and leaves. You shut the door behind him and wonder what on earth you’re doing.


	9. Chapter 9

You wake up late the next morning, and it’s hard to get out of bed – it’s like your body wants to make up for the bad nights you’ve had over the last several weeks. You nearly leave your room when you remember Guzma might be here and step back to your closet. You don’t feel like having him see you in your pajamas.

The kitchen and dining room are as dusty as you’ve left them – he hasn’t been in either room. Looking around, you sigh and realize you need to do a deep clean badly; leaving the house alone while you were running around having adventures wasn’t exactly great for it. And you haven’t even fully unpacked…

Your Pokédex vibrates in your pocket as you get to the bottom of your cereal bowl. Curious, you flick it open – it’s Professor Burnet. “What’s up?”

After a few pleasantries, she gets right to the point. “You’ve been through an Ultra Wormhole?”

“Yeah, that happened.”

“Would you mind coming in and telling me about it?” she asks.

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Your schedule’s pretty damn clear right now, it’s not as if you really have an excuse to turn her down. “Today?”

“Oh, no, I don’t want to rush you. Sometime this week?”

“I can do tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?”

You smile. “It’d actually be nice to see you, if you don’t mind me coming in so soon.”

“Well, great! I’ll get you scheduled in.”

You look off toward the living room, thinking. “D’you need an interview from Guzma?”

She blinks. “Well, yes, it’d be helpful if he were willing to speak to me.”

“I’ll talk to him about it.” You think a little more. “How late do you work?”

Now she’s puzzled. “I try not to stay past 5:30 at the lab if I can help it.”

“Okay. When do you want me to come in tomorrow?” You get the details ironed out before you end the call.

When you walk into the living room, Guzma immediately says, “Not talking to her.”

“You were listening to me?” He’s lying on the couch, laptop on his waist, though the screen’s black – when you came in, it looked as if he was staring at the ceiling.

“Can’t exactly turn off the powers,” he answers.

“So you were reading my mind?”

“Nah. Can hear better than a human.” He glares up at you as you lean against the back of the couch. “I’m not goin’ in.”

“Why?”

“Don’t have to. You’re not makin’ me.”

“You sound like a five-year-old.”

“It’d just – it’d be weird, okay?” He sighs. “She’d bring up Kukui, and she’d probably tell him, and then he’d want to talk to me, and then –”

“Would it really be so bad to reconnect with him?” He winces. “You guys used to be friends, right?”

He sits up. “So we have to be friends now?”

“No. But he’s worried about you, I think.” Guzma clicks on the touchpad of the laptop. “What, now you’re just ignoring me?”

“I’m not goin’.”

“Alright.” You grab your backpack and head for the front door.

“Where’re you headed off to?” he asks.

“You care?” He stares at you. “I’m going to Poni Island. I didn’t really get to check it out much.” He turns back to the laptop. “So I guess I’ll see you when I get back.” He shrugs. “Great talk. Bye.”

The day is pleasant – it’ll still be a month before the worst heat of the summer hits, and there’s enough of a breeze when you’re near the shore for the air to feel nice. You manage to catch a few Pokémon and battle a few trainers without getting too tired. The sun’s low on the horizon when you decide to head back.

Instead of going home, though, you change your mind and head for Ula’Ula. It’s starting to get dark when you land in front of Po Town.

There’s much less activity here than there was when you came to get the Yungoos back. Only a few kids stand around outside, and they aren’t happy to see you, but they let you pass – they seem to recognize you on sight.

You make your way up to Guzma’s old room – it’s not raining now, but it’s still wet enough to make the journey across the planks feel incredibly unsafe. Two kids sit outside Guzma’s door like they’re waiting for him to come back. “You can’t go in there!” the girl says as you approach the door.

“Why not?”

“It’s the boss’s room!” The girl gets up and looks like she’s going to shove you away if you get any closer.

“What’re you doing here?” A familiar voice says from behind. You turn to see Plumeria framed in the wreck of the wall. She looks at the kids and flicks her hand; they bristle. “Listen to your big sis,” she says in a warning tone. The two leave reluctantly.

“They’re not cooperating?” you ask as you watch them slide out of sight on the slick roof.

“It’s a little harder without G around,” she says with a small shrug. “Seriously, what’re you doing here?”

“You have any idea how to handle him?”

She stares at you. “He went to you?”

“He tried to kill himself first.”

Her eyes widen. “Are you serious?”

“That’s what I gathered when he tripped onto my porch yesterday.” You recount what happened for her. While you talk, she opens his door and lets you in. She sits on his unmade bed comfortably. You take a look at the throne and shake your head. “So now I’m stuck with him, I guess.”

“I’m sorry.” Plumeria crosses her legs. “He’s a handful without all of that. I didn’t realize this was bad enough to get to him like that again.”

“He’s been like this before?”

“I met him when he was trying to jump off a building.” At your horrified look, she says, “He didn’t accept being a vampire for a long time.”

“What about Nanu?”

She’s confused. “What about him?”

“He’s the one who changed Guzma.” A look of realization crosses her face – she didn’t know?

“That would actually explain a lot,” she mutters to herself, looking away.

“He didn’t tell you?”

“Did he tell you?”

You scratch your head. “No, Nanu did.”

“You try getting him to talk about anything between leaving his parents and starting Team Skull. You won’t get more than two words.”

“He won’t even talk about it with you?”

“About the part I was there for, sure. Anything else, nothing.” She looks up at you. “He’s not great with the whole emotional thing, if you haven’t noticed.”

“I have, thanks.”

“It’s something I’ve been trying to help him with.” She lies back. “When he’s not being a complete ass.”

“You didn’t agree with him about Team Skull?” you ask.

She cocks her head up. “Would you sit down like a normal person?” Reluctantly, you take a seat next to her on the bed – it’s the only place to sit other than the floor or the throne. “We had a good thing going here. Sure, it was hard, but – it’s the first time I’ve felt like I have family in…” She pauses. “In a long time.”

You glance over at her. “How long have you been a vampire?”

“Thirty years.” You’re the one staring now. “That’s the nice thing about it,” she says with a grin. “No one can tell.”

“How did you not stand out? With your hair and everything?”

“The hair was a recent change.” She trails her fingers through one of her ponytails, takes some hair in her hands and twists it absentmindedly. “Wish I’d done it sooner, but I guess you’re right – woulda stuck out.” She sighs. “It will stick out.”

You consider her. “With Guzma at least being so well known… will it cause problems when people notice he doesn’t age?”

“Depends on if he tries to integrate back into normal life or if he goes off by himself.” Plumeria shrugs. “I don’t think he can do the Nanu thing. So when he does go back to… living in a city, I guess, there’ll be questions. I’m not as well known, but I’m going to get them too.”

“You’re thinking of moving?”

“What choice do I have?” she asks, annoyed. “The gang’s pretty well broken up now, and the kids who’re still here don’t listen to me like they do Guzma. I look like I’m barely older than them, they don’t get why I’m in charge now, even though I’ve been the one taking care of them.” She watches the ceiling. “Besides, I don’t have… charisma or whatever it is that makes Guzma so good at getting them to listen.”

“Guzma wouldn’t change his mind?”

“About this? I don’t think so.” She looks over to you. “And I’m not ready to forgive him for yanking my family out from under my feet.”

“So you won’t talk to him?”

“Not yet.”

You get up. “So I guess he’s my problem for now.”

“You can kick him out.”

“I’d be kicking a puppy that’s already been hurt.”

She sits up. “That’s… yeah, I guess it would be.” She shrugs. “You’re not his therapist, though, y’know? It’s not your job to make him feel better.”

Turning back to her, you say, “What would you do if someone turned up on your doorstep and said they were suicidal?”

For a moment, her face is conflicted. “That’s what got me here, so.” She rubs her arm. “I can’t tell you what to do, but, for what it’s worth, I’m glad he’s got somewhere to stay and someone who’s good supporting him.”

“I don’t know about that.” You turn to go. “I have no idea what I’m doing myself, let alone what to do with him.”

“You’ll figure it out.” She slumps. “We’ll all figure it out at some point. I mean, that’s the only thing we can do.”

“I guess so.” You stop at the door. “Is it alright to tell him I talked to you?”

“Doesn’t matter to me. He’s not the type to come crawling back.”

 

Your house is dark when you get back. Your door is locked and your windows are shut, but Guzma’s not inside. For a moment you wonder how he did it before you head to the kitchen and heat up some leftovers.

When you’re done, you sit down on the couch, thinking about what to do. You look out a window – the moon’s almost full and still bright. You’re in an area without many lights – you can see the stars clearly when you twist your neck. You think about it – you’re not exactly tired yet. Heading out, you lock the door – obviously it’s not a problem for Guzma.

You wind up at the beach near Professor Kukui’s lab, lying in the sand with the waves lapping at your ankles, just looking at the stars. You don’t recognize any of the constellations – it reminds you how far you are from what used to be home. What still feels like home, honestly. You still don’t quite feel settled in. Trying not to think of that, you wonder where you could get a book on the stars out here – probably in Malie. Or you could just look it up on your laptop.

It’s late when you get back to your house. You open the door and hear a voice from the living room say, “Where’ve you been?” You jump and give a little scream, clutching the knob tight.

When you remember it’s Guzma, your heart rate settles slightly. Reaching for the light switch, you ask, “What, do you just sit in the dark for fun?”

“Got perfect night vision.” He smirks. “Worth it for that.”

“Asshole,” you grumble as you get the door locked up again.

“Seriously, where’ve you been all day?” he asks.

You raise an eyebrow. “Is it suddenly your business now?”

“No, but you were just… out really late.” His face is turning a light pink.

“Were you worried?”

“I was just asking a question!”

You sit down in an armchair. “Like I said, I was on Poni Island most of the day.” Kicking your shoes off and settling your feet on the coffee table, you ask, “So where were you? I came home to eat dinner and you weren’t here.”

“I –” He stops himself. “Nothin’.”

You pick up your book. “Why’re you on Melemele anyways? Other than hiding from Nanu.” For a while he’s silent. You’re deep into your book when he mumbles something. You look up. “Huh?”

He’s got one foot up on the couch, hugging his knee. “I was lookin’ for my parents.”

“They live here?”

“Y’know the berry farm on Route 2?” You nod. “Grew up in the house near there.” He scratches his neck, hesitant to speak again, but eventually he continues. “My parents… aren’t there anymore.”

“They moved and didn’t tell you?”

His hands are shaking. “I mean, it’s my fault. I stopped talkin’ to ‘em after I… left. I just… I didn’t think they’d do somethin’ like that without tellin’ me.”

You move over to the couch and sit next to him. For a moment you wonder what to do – if it were a friend, you’d go ahead and hug them, but… you settle for patting him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

Now that he’s started, it’s like he can’t stop. “I just… I walked up and there were kids playin’ on the swingset and they were just laughin’ and – and then their mom came out and told ‘em to come to dinner and –” He’s starting to dry-sob. “It was just like, a normal family, no one was yellin’ and no one was scared and –” He pushes his head into his knee and tightens his hold, trying to muffle himself. He actually manages to stop after a few minutes – it soon becomes obvious he’s not breathing. You try not to freak out when you notice – it’s weird to think that’s normal for him.

Hell, what is normal for him? Obviously not his family. You don’t know what to do; you just keep rubbing his shoulder, letting him know you’re there.

He looks up at you. “Sorry.”

“What for? That sucks.” Slowly he stretches himself out, not relaxed but open. You try to imagine him being relaxed – is there ever a moment when something’s not making him tense?

You get up to go to bed. “Let me know if you need anything, okay?”

“I won’t bother you.” He looks at your laptop. “Well, not more than I already am.”

You swat his shoulder. “Don’t get like that.” He glares up at you. “Just… I’m here. Alright?” He nods.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long break and the short chapter, but I've finally gotten a hold on where I'm going with this. (My writing style: I come up with plot points A, B, and Z, and then figure out how to connect them along the way.) Hoping to start updating more often and get this thing done.

You’re back to tossing and turning and getting little actual rest during the night, waking up tired and grumpy. When you flop down into a chair in the living room after breakfast, Guzma asks, “You don’t sleep well?”

You run your fingers through your hair. “I don’t think I have practically since I moved here.”

“Your dreams are fucking weird.”

“Could you try not reminding me constantly that you’re in my head?”

He shrugs. “Can’t really help it. All I really catch is surface stuff, anyways. It’s not like I go rooting around lookin’ for somethin’ good.”

“Can you do that?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s creepy.”

He glares at you. “That’s why I don’t _do_ it.”

You grab your book and open it. “Well, I’m glad you don’t.”

“Thanks,” he says sarcastically.

Soon it’s time to go see Burnet. Telling her about the Ultra Wormhole and everything that happened is more difficult than you expected, remembering that Lillie’s gone now. When you’re done, she lays her hand on yours and asks, “Are you doing alright?”

“Fine.”

“You look like something’s on your mind.”

You consider brushing her off, but she’s been nothing but nice to you. Sighing, you say, “Doing the island trials – a lot of things happened. I guess I’m still processing it.”

She nods. “From what it sounds like, you’ve been through a lot in so little time. And just after moving here, too – that’s a big life change all by itself.”

“Yeah. It’s been a bit much.” You think for a moment. “I think I’m gonna take a while and just… relax at the beach. I mean, that’s part of why I moved here in the first place.”

Burnet smiles. “Good idea.”

 

You don’t really feel like going home, but you don’t know where else to go. You wind up spending a few hours at the beach near the Hano Grand Resort, tossing Pyukumuku back into the waves to get rid of some of the tension in your chest. After that, you don’t really feel better, just tired. You take a Charizard back to your house, where Guzma’s reading comics. He looks up at you and starts to say something as you slump into your chair, but stops himself. After a long period of you trying to read your book and failing to concentrate enough to even finish a page, Guzma asks, “You’re not happy, are you?”

“Just tired,” you mutter as you lean back, dropping the book.

“You wanna talk about it?” You stare at him. “You’ve been listenin’ to me bitchin’ and moanin’, least I can do is return the favor.” He rubs his shoulder. “Or, I dunno, you could just think about it if talkin’ is too hard.”

“You mean you can’t tell what’s up already?”

“I’m _tryin’_ not to listen to you,” he says, annoyed. “Besides, it’s all jumbled and shit.”

Trying to avoid answering him, you ask, “Do you sleep at all?”

“No. Can’t.”

You close and rub your eyes. “Must be nice.”

“I… actually, I kinda miss it,” Guzma says quietly. “I miss a lot of stuff.”

“Like what?”

It takes him a few minutes to answer, shifting around uncomfortably as he thinks. “Food. Sunlight.” He stops for a moment. “This sounds weird, but, like… I wish I still had a heartbeat. Would make me feel more alive.”

You think back to the first time he bit you, his head on your chest. “Were you listening to my –”

His cheeks flush pale pink. “Yeah. Um. Sorry.” The words come out stilted, like he’s not used to saying them.

Awkward silence falls between you for a few moments. Something from back when you first met him pops into your mind. “How old are you?”

“Twenty…” He has to think about it, even counting on his fingers. “Six?”

“You don’t know for sure?”

He shrugs. “Birthdays stopped feelin’ important when I realized I wasn’t, y’know, gettin’ older. I mean, I am, but – ya know what I mean.”

“How old were you when…” You trail off. Asking about when he was made a vampire feels kind of personal.

“Twenty-three.” He glares at you, mouth shut, lips tight. You take that as the end of the conversation and walk out to the porch to let your Pokémon out in the yard.

Eventually it’s time to eat dinner and then time to sleep. Or try to, anyway. When you open your bedroom door, Guzma says, “Hey.” You turn back to him. “Um, I might – I think I could help you sleep.”

You raise an eyebrow. “How?” For a brief instant, the idea of holding him in bed flashes through your mind before you squash the thought.

“I could –” He scratches the back of his neck. “Y’know how I can tell ya to do something and make you do it?” You stare at him. “Well, I mean, I think I could tell ya to go to sleep.”

It wouldn’t be a lie to say you’re a little bit desperate for a good night’s rest. “That’s all you’ll do?”

“Yeah.”

You think about it for another moment. “Okay.” You shut the door on him and change into your usual sleep outfit, an oversized shirt and loose shorts. Getting into bed, you think, _You can come in now._ It’s unnerving when he opens the door.

He looks a little nervous when he sees you. “So… just lie down like ya normally would, I guess.” You get on your side. For a moment you stare off into space, but It feels awkward – you look up at him as he bends over you. He reaches out – his fingers gently brush your hair back behind your ear. You feel the attraction welling up again and force it back down, closing your eyes. He rests his fingers on your temple and says quietly, “Go to sleep.” You think about telling him how silly this feels when your mind goes blank.

 

When you come to, your consciousness is slow to return, eyelids heavy, mouth dry and tasting funny, like you just took a nap. You’ve lost all sense of orientation – it takes a minute to realize you’re still in your bed, but on your back – there’s something on your shoulders – hands, shaking you. Someone’s been talking this whole time, but your brain is fuzzy, the noises unfamiliar until your mind and ears clear – it’s Guzma, saying, “Wake up, wake up!” He sounds freaked out.

You reach up and rub your face. “Wha – what happened?”

He’s still panicking. “You didn’t wake up and then I couldn’t get you to wake up and – and fuck.”

You close your eyes and press your fingers into them. You still feel groggy – and honestly, not very well rested. At least you’re not as tired as you have been. “What time is it?”

“Eleven.”

Your eyes shoot open. “Seriously?” You normally try to wake up around eight or nine.

“You didn’t come out and I thought you were just sleeping in, but then it was like – an hour and a half so I tried to wake you up and – it – it didn’t work.” He’s still holding your shoulders – at least he’s stopped shaking you. You’re finally awake enough for it to dawn on you how scary this is. You sit up and stare at him. “I’ve never done that before – I thought I could just tell you to wake up if I had to and it’d be fine.”

“Let’s – how about we don’t experiment with what you can do anymore, okay?”

His hands move to your back – he’s hugging you, face pressed into your shoulder. “I’m sorry.” It sounds genuine for once.

For a moment, you don’t know what to do. Finally you just hug him back, taking comfort in being held. He suddenly jerks away. “I’m sorry – I shouldn’t –”

“Huh?”

He flushes pink again. “I – I’m still…” He sucks in a breath. “I haven’t – um – I haven’t gotten over you yet.”

You lean back against the headboard. “Oh.” He can’t figure out what to do with his hands – he ends up shoving them in his pockets. You rub your arm. “I mean, if I’m honest, I’m not – really over it yet either.” He looks up at you, surprised. You sigh. “Don’t get your hopes up.”

He looks away. “I… yeah.”

You hug your knees to your chest. “I mean…” You wonder if you should be honest. Then you remember he can read your thoughts anyway – he can probably already see what you’re thinking about telling him. “Look, if you and Plumeria figure out your shit, and you’re completely honest with me about all this… maybe we can work something out. Maybe.”

Shutting his eyes, he tries to compose himself. “Have – have you ever been in – something like this?”

“No.” You look away from him. “I never really even thought about it before now.”

 “But you – you wanna –”

You swallow. “Maybe. Get back with Plumeria and figure your crap out first.”

Without saying a word, darkness wraps around him – then he’s gone. You stare at where he was standing.

How badly does he want this? Is he just desperate?


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! A new chapter, aka the chapter where Shit Finally Starts Happening! I apologize if the slow burn's been a little *too* slow. I'm gonna try to pick up my pace with writing this and get it done over the next few months, along with the other fics that have yet to be finished. Hope you enjoy it!

You spend most of the day taking short naps and puttering around the house when you can’t sleep, feeling annoyingly old. At least you can spend some time just watching your Pokémon run around the front yard and enjoy themselves for once instead of battling.

Professor Kukui comes up the road to Iki Town and Hau’Oli. He comes over when he sees you wave. “Howzit! Learn any cool moves lately?”

Barely resisting the urge to roll your eyes, you tell him, “No, been taking a break from battling and training and all that.” Arcanine comes up and nearly bowls the guy over trying to lick his face. Laughing, you call her off. “Sorry!”

“Eh, barely worse than a Rockruff tackle.” He manages to right himself without falling over and runs his hands through her fur. He looks over at you. “You doing okay?”

God, you’re tired of people asking. “Yeah. Just getting some rest.”

“I bet the last few weeks were pretty stressful, huh?” He grooms some leaves out of Arcanine’s fur. “I’m sorry for getting you all caught up in everything going on at Aether. If I knew –”

“It’s not your fault.” Mimikyu slides over to you. You pet its costume’s head. “It’s not really anyone’s fault. Stuff just kind of happened.”

“From all accounts, it was pretty rough. Poni Canyon’s a challenge for the best trainers. And actually going into Ultra Space…” He looks over at you. “Listen to me just going over it again with you. I should be saying thanks for keeping Lillie safe.” He pauses. “And helping Guzma.”

“Like I would’ve left him behind.” Mimikyu’s costume head thunks over to the side. The thing’s too heavy for the poor little creature to hold up. It claws at the costume, trying to fix it. “Not even Lusamine deserved that.”

“Have you seen him since that all went down?”

“Yeah. He’s doing… alright.”

“You know where he is?”

You consider telling Kukui that he’s living with you, but Guzma would probably kill you. You wince when you think that, considering he could literally kill you. “Not right now, no.”

Kukui sighs. “I just feel bad that all this happened to him. We were friends for a long time. He… he had a rough time growing up. And then he ran away…” He shakes his head. “I don’t know what’s been going on for him, but he didn’t need this dragging him down too, y’know?”

“He was pretty rocked by everything.” You shrug. “I think he’s doing better, at least.”

“Good.” He steps away from Arcanine, toward the road. “Well, I need to get going. Let me know if you see him soon?” You nod. “And don’t be a stranger, alright?”

“I’ll come visit sometime.” You start putting your Pokémon back into their balls as he says his goodbyes and continues toward Hau’Oli and Iki Town.

When you walk inside, Guzma glances up at you from his perch on the couch. “Thanks for not tellin’ him I’m here.”

You sit on the other end of the couch. “You should talk to him.” He glares at you. “He cares about you, okay?”

“That’s the problem,” he mutters.

It’s quiet for a few moments. You watch him from the corners of your eyes. “So’d you go talk to Plumeria?”

“No.” He settles back into the couch. “Went somewhere quiet. To think.”

“About what?”

He runs his finger along the zipper track of his jacket. “Stuff.”

That’s the kind of response you tend to give when you don’t want to talk about things. With a sigh, you go to your room to find a new book.

When you turn from your bookcase, Guzma’s standing in your doorway. “Would… would you really think about… gettin’ with me and Plumes?”

“It’s not gonna magically fix things or make you feel better.”

“Could ya just say yes or no?”

You hesitate for a moment. “Yeah. I would.” He turns to go back to the living room. “You gonna talk to her?”

He grips the doorframe with one hand. “I…” His shoulders slump. “I dunno.”

Walking up to him, you tell him, “She was mad, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t just hate you now.”

Darkness wraps around him until your doorway is empty. You sigh and head to the kitchen to start making dinner.

 

He doesn’t come back before you go to sleep. He’s not there when you wake up. You wonder if he fixed things with Plumeria and decided he’s done with you, or if he’s just tired of being at your place. It’s not fun to think about, but at least you could start putting all this behind you a little easier without him in your face.

You spend the day cleaning up the house, not really knowing what else to do. You need to get a job soon, or start battling again, something to pass the time and give you an income. From all the battling you did during your trials, you have a good little pile of savings, but it’s not going to last forever.

The sun starts to set and he still hasn’t shown up. You try to push him out of your mind but it’s difficult; you can’t help but be worried about him after the last few days, and like you admitted to him, you still do have feelings for him. At this point, though, it looks like he’s not coming back.

You get up from the couch and head to the kitchen to heat up some leftovers. You’re halfway through the dining room when someone knocks at the door. Turning around to go answer it, you wonder who it could be at this hour.

Plumeria stands on your porch. “Can I come in?”

“Uh, okay.” You stand aside to let her through.

She stops a few feet from the door. “I can come back when you’re done eating.”

“Okay, could y’all, like, stop with the creepy mind-reading thing?”

“Can’t really help it.” She smiles. “I’ll do what I can, though.”

“Thanks.” You shut the door right before your stomach gurgles. “But, um, yeah, I really do need to eat. You don’t have to leave, but if you wanna wait out here, that’s fine.”

“You mind if we talk while you eat?”

You shrug. “Sure. That’s fine. You’re just gonna catch me with a full mouth sometimes.”

She chuckles. “I think I can handle that.”

Once you’ve gotten yourself settled at the dining room table, you ask, “What’s up?”

She sits across from you. “You been dealing alright with Guzma bugging you?”

“Hasn’t really been bugging me.” You stir the pasta on your plate around. It’s nothing special, and you find yourself wishing you’d actually made something impressive tonight. Why? Do you need to prove yourself to her? “We’ve been doing okay.”

“He came back yesterday.”

You glance up at her. “I hope that was good.”

“It was… long.” She sighs. “Really. Long. Like, we stopped talking this morning, he left to give me some space, then I found him and we kept talking ‘til an hour ago.”

“Um. Wow. That’s a lot.” You don’t really know what else to say to that. You have no idea what they got up to – you don’t know why she’s here.

“Things aren’t… well, stuff’s not back to normal.” She leans back. “I mean, I guess it never will – we’re done with Team Skull now.”

You swallow the bite you just took. “You’re going along with him?”

“Yeah. There’s not really much I can do for the team by myself. Nanu’s doing what he can to look after the kids in Po Town who’re left.” She grins. “He said he might see if he can get people interested in fixing the place up.”

“That’s pretty awesome.”

“It is if it works out, yeah.” You fall silent for a few minutes. It’s kind of nice; you can eat without worrying about having to respond. Finally she springs the question you’ve been slightly dreading. “So… Guzma said you’re open to being with us?”

You take a huge gulp – some of it goes down your airway, leaving you coughing. Plumeria raises an eyebrow. “Do I need to give you the Heimlich?” You wildly shake your head no. “Good, because I don’t know how.”

When you finally get your cough under control, you ask, “Why’d you even offer?” Your voice is raspy.

“I mean, that shit’s what phones are for these days, right?” She thinks about it for a moment. “Then again, I’d probably snap a rib or two, or worse.”

“Remind me not to ask you for help.” You twirl some noodles around your fork. “Have you and Guzma gotten your shit together?”

She shrugs. “I mean, this stuff’s not gonna resolve itself with one talk, y’know? All that shit with Lusamine…” She looks off to the side. “To be honest, we’ve been out of sync for a while now.” She glances back at you from the corner of her eyes. “At least he’s finally started on, thanks to you.”

“I didn’t really do much. Just helped get him back from Ultra Space. The rest was all her being a dick and him doing his thing.”

“Still, you helped.” Plumeria looks around. “You have a nice house.”

“Thanks.”

“I could move in with –”

You rub your eyes. “I have one couch.”

“We don’t sleep.”

“Point.” You tilt your head. “Let’s see if shit actually works out between us before y’all think about moving in.”

“So you’re kicking Guzma out?”

“If y’all are on good terms again, I’d prefer he’d stay with you.”

“We _could_ just all move in together and have a big threesome –”

“Buy me dinner first, geez,” you mutter in annoyance.

Plumeria grins. “We can do a little romancing first.” She looks at you more seriously. “Uh, you mind if I bite you, actually?”

All that remains on your plate is some sauce and a couple of stray noodles. “You need blood?” She nods. “Let me go brush my teeth.”

“What?”

“You’re gonna be right in my face and I just ate, if you go for the neck.” You feel your face turning red. “And, um, the biting turned into making out once.”

“Please say that was with Guzma.”

“What, who else would do it? Nanu?” You think about kissing him and shudder. “Not happening.”

“You realize I’m as old as he looks, right?”

You hadn’t actually thought about that. “That. Um. That’s. A little weird.” You keep thinking about it. “You’re kind of a cradle robber, aren’t you?”

That makes her laugh. “I guess. It’d look kinda creepy if I dated people my age, though.” She glances up at the ceiling. “I mean, I doubt they’d even believe me.”

“Hm.” You get to your feet and pick up your plate. “Well, um, tooth brushing. Then bloodsucking.”

When you’re finished in the bathroom, Plumeria’s sitting on the couch, feet up on your coffee table. Instead of getting up, she motions you to come sit with her. Once you’re on the couch, she immediately pulls you toward her, already bowing her head. Her teeth sink in and the pain hits before you have time to process what she’s doing. You slump against her as the odd mix of pleasure and pain radiates through your body.

She looks concerned when she pulls off. “You okay?”

You blink rapidly and shake your head a little, trying to come out of the haze. “Fine. Good.” You can’t stop staring at her lips. “Kissing now?”

“It’s like you’re drunk,” she says. “You sure everything’s okay? You really wanna do this?”

Her hand is on the back of your neck. You reach up and slide your fingers over her arm. “Plumes. I fucking. Brushed. My teeth. For this.” She giggles, sounding like a little girl – it’s so unlike her. You and she lean in – at the wrong angle. Your teeth clack together. She pulls back, startled. You laugh in her face. “We figured this out before. We can do this.”

“Okay, I think I never want to see you _actually_ drunk,” Plumeria says as she takes your chin in her hand. She holds you still and leans in at a much better angle. It’s easy to sink into her, to lose yourself in the physical feelings as you run your hands up and down her back, as she runs her fingers through your hair. She’s not as pushy as you remember Guzma being; her lips are thinner but softer. You end up taking the lead, parting your lips and pressing your tongue against her mouth. Her hand slowly slides down your neck, over your shoulder to your breast. You pull her in tighter to you, pressing as much of yourself as you can against her.

You stop thinking so completely that you have no idea how long the kissing lasts, or when your senses start returning to you. When she finally pulls away, you realize you’ve pulled her into your lap and your hands are under her baggy sweatpants, gripping her ass. Embarrassed, you slide your hands back up, telling her, “That was nice.”

She laughs. “Good. I liked it too.”

It feels awkward wanting to keep going, like you’re being needy when you ask, “More?”

She gives you a soft smile. “You’re fine.” As she leans in again, she whispers in your ear, “We could do more.”

You think about it. “Not yet.”

“Okay.” She pecks the tip of your nose before she returns to your lips.


End file.
